The University of Colorado is looking at ways to solicit donations of $5 or so through text messages at football games or other events, the Daily Camera , a Boulder newspaper, reported today.

An announcer could ask fans to pull out their phones during a break in play and text a small donation for scholarships or other purposes. The mobile donations would be paid through the donor’s cellphone bill.

The small donations can add up. On a recent episode of American Idol, the musician Alicia Keys asked fans to text message donations to her charity that helps HIV orphans in Africa, “Keep a Child Alive.” Her request raised $450,000 from 90,000 donors, the newspaper reported.

One student who had a season pass to football games last fall said she and other students would probably donate to Colorado if they could do it through a text message.

“It’d be a good way because it’s something that students do all the time anyway,” Ariel Braude. a sophomore, said.

(Read a Chronicle of Philanthropy article about new efforts to make cellphone donations an efficient way for charities to raise money.)

—Kathryn Masterson