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Tag Archives: Mobile Giving
May 2, 2012, 2:23 pm
Charities May Soon Get a Way to Seek Bigger Text Gifts
Donors who give through mobile text messages could soon have the options of giving a larger donation and setting up repeat text gifts, say the leaders of two of the organizations that oversee text giving in the U.S. and Canada.
Jim Manis, chief executive of the Mobile Giving Foundation, and Bernard Lord, chairman of the Mobile Giving Foundation Canada, said in an interview that they are working with some cellular service providers to allow $20 donations—double the current $10 limit—and recurring donations, though they gave no timeline on when those features would be available.
Mr. Lord said 75 percent of donors are willing to give $20 or more through text messaging, according to research his group has conducted. Forty-seven percent say they are willing to donate $25 or more through the platform.
Text-message gifts remain popular, the two men say, even though it is quickly be…
January 12, 2012, 11:21 am
Haiti Text Gifts Spur More Disaster Contributions
Donors who made text-message gifts to aid survivors of the devastating earthquake in Haiti two years ago have continued to turn to their cellphones to give after other disasters, according to a new study.
Four in 10 of those donors texted a contribution to help people in Japan following last year’s earthquake and tsunami, according to a survey of 863 people who made a text-message gift after the earthquake in Haiti. More than a quarter of donors to Haiti reported that they gave via cellphone after the BP oil spill in 2010, and nearly 20 percent said they made a text-message gift to help victims of last year’s tornadoes in the South.
The survey was conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, together with the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard and the mGive Foundation, with a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Roughly…
March 22, 2011, 1:43 pm
Teaching Donors How to Give Via Cellphone
Washington
Text-message giving is relatively new, and donors are still getting the hang of it. In the wake of the disaster in Japan, the Salvation Army is trying to ensure that more of them complete the transaction.
To make a donation via cellphone, donors send a specific keyword, such as “Japan” or “tsunami,” to a five-digit short code. Then they receive a text message asking them to confirm the gift.
If a donor doesn’t respond to the confirmation message, the charity does not receive the donation–something that happens fairly often, Jason Wood, a technology official at the Salvation Army, told participants at the Nonprofit Technology Conference, in Washington last week.
During the Alexandria, Va., organization’s year-end fund-raising drive, text-message gifts totaled $26,000, but he said that number would have been $12,000 higher if everyone who started the donation…
March 15, 2011, 9:54 am
Online Giving a Bright Spot in 2010
Internet contributions were one of the few bright spots in fund raising last year. Now two big fund-raising software companies have analyzed their clients’ 2010 online-giving data.
Blackbaud: Online gifts to the 1,812 charities that Blackbaud tracks in its Index of Online Giving totaled more than $495-million in 2010, an increase of more than 34 percent, according to a report released by the Charleston, S.C., company.
Nonprofit groups with annual budgets of more than $10-million saw the biggest gains, with an increase of more than 55 percent. Online contributions increased by 22 percent at organizations with budgets of less than $1-million and by almost 16 percent at groups with annual budgets of $1-million to $10-million.
Online giving represented more than 7 percent of overall fund raising, based on the 1,438 charities for which the company had both online and total…
March 14, 2011, 1:14 pm
Giving for Japan Disaster Totals at Least $24-Million
Early donation totals are starting to come in from charities that are raising money to aid victims of the earthquake and tsunamis in Japan.
Among them:
- The American Red Cross had raised approximately $19-million as of Monday afternoon Eastern time. Text-message contributions accounted for $1.6-million of that total.
- Catholic Relief Services had raised $450,000 as of Monday afternoon.
- Give2Asia raised $33,500 for relief efforts over the weekend.
- International Medical Corps so far has raised $11,830 via text message.
- International Rescue Committee so far has received $25,000, which it will give to Japanese charities that are providing immediate relief. The organization has an emergency team on standby ready to assist if needed.
- Mercy Corps had received $600,000 as of Monday afternoon.
- The Salvation Army had received more than $980,000 by Monday afternoon. Of that total, …
February 2, 2011, 6:58 pm
Text Donors Want to Give More
One of the big questions charities have about text-message giving is whether the $5 and $10 gifts donors make using their cellphones come at the expense of larger gifts those same people would have made online or in the mail.
In a new survey, more than 8 out of 10 people who made charitable donations via text message said they would consider making larger contributions using another method.
The report, however, is based on a relatively small group of donors.
In December, CCS, the fund-raising consulting company that conducted the research, sent a text message about the survey to more than 23,500 donors who had made a contribution using their cellphone and opted to receive follow-up messages from the charity to which they donated; 253 of those donors completed the survey.
The percentage of cellphone donors who choose to receive additional information varies, but is generally…
November 30, 2010, 5:43 pm
Two Charities Test $25 Text Gifts
This holiday season, the American Center for Law and Justice and the American Red Cross, both in Washington, are conducting holiday campaigns that will test whether donors are willing to make $25 contributions via text messages.
People who make a $25 text-message gift to the Red Cross will receive a link to download a badge for their Facebook page, which the organization hopes will spread the word about the campaign.
One of the chief criticisms of cellphone fund raising has been the small size of donations charities could solicit. To date, organizations have had the choice of asking for either $5 or $10 gifts. When a donor gives via text message, the contribution appears on his or her cellphone bill, and the cellphone carrier then forwards the money to the charity, usually through a nonprofit organization that serves as a middleman.
In addition to testing donors’ appetite…
November 5, 2010, 1:09 pm
Two Charities Test $25 Cellphone Contributions
The ability to ask for more than $10 via cellphone has long been on charities’ fund-raising wishlist. And after this holiday season, that wish might just come true.
From now until December 31, two charities are conducting holiday campaigns that will test whether donors are willing to make $25 contributions via text messages.
One of the chief criticisms of cellphone fund raising has been the small size of donations charities could solicit. To date, organizations have had the choice of asking for either $5 or $10 gifts. When a donor gives via text message, the contribution appears on their cellphone bill, and the cellphone carrier then forwards the money to the charity, usually through a nonprofit organization that serves as a middleman.
In addition to testing donors’ appetite for making larger text-message gifts, the trial is designed to help cellphone carriers assess…
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