Mobile Fundraising Campaigns
In the 2008 Text 2HELP campaign, the American Red Cross, in collaboration with the Wireless Foundation, has raised over 190,000USD 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.
However, high carrier charges and legislative obstacles can hinder the success of a SMS donation campaign. In some cases, up to 50% of a donation would go to the mobile service provider, an unacceptable amount to most charities. On the other side, in Spain the law only allows a maximum donation of 1.20 euros per SMS, a threshold established to protect mobile users in case of other money transactions. This could explain partially why in 2005, the Spanish branch of the Red Cross raised eight million euros for the tsunami relief efforts in Southeast Asia, a much lower figure in comparison to the disaster in Haiti.
The hitherto most successful mobile donating campaign has been organized in support of the relief efforts for the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The American Red Cross has raised over $32 million dollars within one month after the disaster, and has demonstrated the unprecedented potential for small text-message donations.
Read more about this topic: Mobile Donating
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