MobileActive is announcing the third MobileActive Guide, profiling strategies and civil society organizations using mobile phones in their work to make the world a better place. The MobileActive Guide focuses on using mobile phones in fundraising campaigns. It features case studies from around the world, strategies for using mobile phones in fundraiaing, and a how-to section for organizations considering using mobile phones to support their causes.
Mobile phones have become a powerful emerging tool for participation in civil society. This five part series looks ways nonprofits have used mobile phones in their campaigns and the effective strategies deployed, and shares lessons learned.
Today's Mobile Minute features links on fundraising with QR codes, a survey report on how audiences get information, a breakdown of how journalism is changing due to mobile phones, the announcement of a clearer definition of mobile broadband, an open-source, solar-powered mobile network, and five cross-platform mobile development tools.
Greenpeace India/SMS Lead Generation data sheet 5858 Views
Greenpeace's first use of SMS in India was as a fundraising tool. As part of a campaign to encourage people to plant trees, Greenpeace India sent out text messages offering free saplings.
All text for this case study came from this description on SOFII.
Mobile fundraising is taking off -- or so at least hope nonprofits hard hit by the economic downturn. Organizations are looking for a new channel for people to give on the spot, wherever they are, with their phones and a quick text message.
Mobile giving via SMS in the United States and many other parts of the world, has been out of reach because of high carrier charges - up to 50% of a donation would go to the telcom -- unacceptable to most charities.
But this has changed in the last two years. Mobile donation campaigns in the United States that go through the Mobile Giving Foundation are not subject to the high carrier fees. The Mobile Giving Foundation charges a smaller percentage fee -- currently 10%. As a result, in 2008 the field of mobile giving in the U.S. attracted the attention by organizations large and small, including by such brands as UNICEF, the Salvation Army, and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
I am thinking a lot about how nonprofits and NGOs can use mobile phones for fundraising (this being the holiday season and all) and have been collecting examples of campaigns that I like to extract some lessons and data on how it's working. Here are my picks of some that I have come across. I'll tell you what I like and why (and what's not so great here). Note that I have no data yet on how WELL they have worked but believe me, we are on it for a whiteb paper on the topic later in the season...So, here is November's pick!
How it works: Donors can text the word “TOT” to 864233 (UNICEF) to make a $5 donation via premium SMS that gets billed to the user's phone bill or prepaid card.
What's nice about this: This campaign uses the just-in-time feature of mobile perfectly and had great potential to be used during the Halloween season where kids walk around with little donation boxes when the go door to door -- kids collecting for kids. Most people at the door give a few coins as opposed to $5, so with the right promotion, this campaign could generate extra money in addition to the collection.
Note: This primer was written for the NTEN newsletter, targeted at a US audience and thus focuses on America. For more on mobile advocacy in many other parts of the world, see here.
Mobile donations to nonprofits have been stymied in the United States - hampered by the high fees charged for text message gifts that are then billed to a mobile phone customer.
When a donor gives to a nonprofit via text, more than half of the contribution goes to the telephone carrier, leaving less than 50% to the nonprofit, an unacceptable margin for most charities. Combined with low donation caps -- no more than $5 per SMS with a total of five SMS for a $25 donation -- and other charges for short codes and mobile vendors, nonprofits have determined that mobile giving is not worth it.
This is about to change.
If the Mobile Giving Foundation plays its cards right, mobile donations via text message may just explode this year.
We are very pleased to announce the first set of translations of MobileActive's Strategy Guides into Arabic. Thank you to the National Democratic Institute for its pro-bono support for the translation.
Mobile phones have become a powerful emerging tool for participation in civil society. The MobileActive series of Strategy Guides, now in Arabic, examines the effectiveness of civil society organizations using mobile phones to build their constituent lists, influence political causes, and raise money. In the Guides we aggregate strategies, case studies, and lessons learned to encourage the adoption of mobile phones by nonprofits.
This series of Strategy Guides is designed to equip organizations around the world with the know-how to deploy effective mobile campaigns for a variety of types of activism and advocacy.
Joe Trippi, the pioneer of Internet political campaigning with Howard Dean's 2004 presidential bid, shares his views on the next frontier in campaign technology for mobilization and fundraising in a May interview in Newsweek which is published on the MSNBC.com website. "I think text messaging is going to be more important than ever. Look at the success of the pro-immigration campaign. We may be talking about the Great Text-Messaging Campaign of 2008, not the Great Blog Campaign."
If you're one of the 100 million people with a PayPal account, now you can use your mobile phone to donate to Amnesty International USA and the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. Just register your cell phone at PayPal, then text AMNESTY to 78787 and you'll donate $10. Text WATER to 78787 and you'll donate to UNICEF.
Imagine you're at a baseball game or a rock concert and you're invited to get out your cell phone and donate $5 or $10. It may be another year or two before this gets big. PayPal's service is brand new and just launched its "Text to Give" tool. Verizon, Cingular, and Sprint take 40% off the top.
