Mobile donating

Mobile donating refers to donating to an organization through a mobile device. The primary means for mobile donating is through SMS. Mobile donating can also refer to consumers donating their old phones to a cause for recycling and reuse of the device.

Direct mobile donations can only be made to organizations that have live mobile fundraising campaigns. In order to launch such a campaign, an organization can partner with a provider, such as Gnosis Media Group, Accelevents, Pledgeling, BidPal, Give by Cell, Connect2give, mGive, Mobile Commons or MobileCause.

Premium SMS donations: Text messaging, or SMS, is the primary means of mobile giving. Mobile phone users can make donations by texting a keyword to a specific SMS short code. Keywords are determined by the fundraising organization, and usually pertain to the organization’s cause or purpose. Donation amounts are predetermined, commonly at $5 or $10, and users often have a limit of how many micro-donations they can send via sms to a single campaign in one month. After donating, users receive a confirmation text message and the donation amount is added to their monthly phone bill. Donations can take up to 90 days to be processed.

WAP donations: Mobile giving can also occur through a mobile website. Cell phone users can access WAP donation pages by sending a specific text message to a designated keyword and receiving a link to the page in response, or by navigating to the page from a referring site. Upon reaching the WAP donation page, users are prompted to enter their cell phone numbers. Donations are confirmed with a text message sent to the donor’s mobile phone, and the donation is added to the donor’s monthly phone bill.

In the 2008 Text 2HELP campaign, the American Red Cross, in collaboration with the Wireless Foundation, has raised over $190,000 USD through 38,091 text messages to provide relief for victims of natural disasters like Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike. In South Africa, Nelson Mandela’s charity raised $85,000 USD in July 2008 with the cooperation of Zain, a South African mobile operator, using Mandela’s 90th birthday as the ‘call to give’; well-wishers from around the world could text in a birthday wish and make a donation at the same time.

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Wikipedia