Help China & Mynmar

Starting today, customers of Verizon Wireless in the U.S. can donate to a charity called "Save the Children," who has mobilized in this time of crisis to provide lifesaving assistance in these two affected regions. Verizon customers can text to the address 4SAVE (47283) with the keyword "quake" to contribute to earthquake relief or the key word "cyclone" to contribute to cyclone relief. They will then receive a reply asking them to confirm their donation of $5.00, which will appear on their next monthly bill.

In China, they're doing the same thing - China Mobile customers can text the number '10699988', and write the amount they would like to donate (from 1RMB to 30RMB) in the body of the text. The money will is deducted from either their phone bill or prepaid card.

Text to Give

PayPal has had a section of their web site devoted to charities that you can donate via text. Currently, the charities you can donate to this way include Amnesty International, UNICEF, and Starbright.

Anytime you see an ad that says "Text To Give," it's simply a matter of texting the code to the number provided. PayPal calls you back to confirm your donation and then you'll receive your receipt by email.

To use PayPal mobile, you must first activate your phone. Then, select one of these current codes:

• Text AMNESTY to 78787 to donate $10.00 to Amnesty International
• Text WATER to 78787 to donate $10.00 to UNICEF's program to help supply those in need with clean drinking water.
• For the Starlight Starbright foundation, you can donate one of three different amounts to help seriously ill children: Donate $5: Text 5 to 78787
  Donate $15: Text 15 to 78787
  Donate $30: Text 30 to 78787

Of course, once your phone is registered, you can send money to anyone via PayPal's SMS commands.

Mobile Giving/Social Giving

There's also a new site that's involved in allowing people to donate to charities via text. The site is called mGive, and here, non-profits can register themselves and the keyword they want in order to receive a short code for mobile donations. The texters pay the donation amount on their mobile bill and mGive collects that from the cell companies and distributes it back to the non-profit.

One of mGive's current campaigns involves Alicia Keys' efforts with the Keep a Child Alive Foundation, which is a response to the AIDS pandemic in Africa. U.S. users can text "ALIVE" to "90999" to donate $5 towards this cause. This service works on AT&T, Nextel, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

mGive

mGive works with a group called the Mobile Giving Foundation, a newly launched effort with a large amount of support from Qualcomm. The Mobile Giving Foundation was set up to help move the money from the cell phone carriers to the charities. This organization is currently working with over 20 large charities, like Keep a Child Alive (mentioned above), and more. Since the foundation has just launched, there are only a limited number of campaigns running, but its current roster that includes ASPCA (text Give to 27722), Alicia Keys Keep a Child Alive Campaign (text ALIVE to 90999), and FIT to UNITED (864833). In the future, there will be campaigns with PBS, IFAW, and others.

More Soon

Mobile Giving is certainly a growing trend meant to capitalize on the ubiquity of cell phones and their heavy use by members of the younger generation. We'll definitely start seeing more of these "text to give" campaigns in the future, but it seems that, today, only Verizon seems to offer a campaign for China and Myanmar aid, which is disappointing.

A rise in mobile giving will also give rise to mobile charity scammers - in fact, it already has, both in China and in the U.S., so be on guard against unsolicated SMS text messages asking for donations.

Do you know of any good text-to-give campaigns? Let us know in the comments.

"The main theme that jumped out at us is that major donors -- or the wired wealthy as we call them -- are very active online with the intention of becoming even more so when it comes to their philanthropic support," said Vinay Bhagat, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer for Convio in a press release. "Based on what these important donors told us, we believe a tremendous opportunity exists for nonprofit organizations to better leverage their online presence to improve the online experience of the wired wealthy."

Convio, Edge, and Sea Change expect that the results of their research will change the way some charities approach online fundraising. Specifically, they found that more than half of those surveyed preferred giving online, and 80% said they did at least some of their donating via the Internet (and a good portion do it via credit card to get the frequent flier miles). That's imporant because even though the "wired wealthy" made up just about 1% of donors to the charities involved in the study, they accounted for approximately 32% of their annual gifts.

Unfortunately for charities, less than half of respondents thought charity web sites were generally well-designed, that charities did enough to connect with them online, or that they were inspired by charity sites. So how can organizations better connect with these important constituents? Email is one method. According to the study, 65% of the "wired wealthy" always open email sent from charities they support, and about 3/4ths of respondents said that email reminders about the renewal of an annual gift are "appropriate." But just 43% thought emails from charities were usually well-written or inspiring, indicating that thus far email has been a lost opportunity for many non-profit organizations. Further, a large majority of respondents said an email letting them know how their donation was spent would make they more likely to give again, as would controls on how often a charity was allowed to email them.

More than half of respondents also use YouTube, which points to online video as another pontential way to connnect with wealthy donors online.

"We believe this research will fundamentally shift the way some nonprofit organizations approach their relationships with major donors online," said Mark Rovner, Principal of Sea Change Strategies.

The study revealed three distinct personality types among the "wired wealthy."

• 29% are Relationship Seekers - Relationship seekers put the most stock in how a charity web site forms a connection with them. They tend to skew younger (under 45) and are most likely to engage in social activities with the charity. 2/3rds of relationship seekers say that a charity's web site plays a role in whether or not they give money.
• 41% are Casual Connectors - Like relationship seekers, so-called casual connectors also seek a connection with the charity. However, for them it is less personal -- they're more interested in things like how efficiently the charity is using their money and want easy access to that information.
• 30% are All Business - The all business set doesn't care about feeling connected to the charity, rather they want the donation process to be as easy and painless as possible. They also tend give the most money.

It certainly seems possible to appeal to each of those personality types via a single web site, which is exactly what the authors of the study hope will happen. "The research provides important insight into the ways non-profits can better connect, motivate and retain these donors. The results of this research will provide a variety of different non-profit organizations -- both large and small -- the tools to assess their online strategy and make adjustments where necessary to better capture big opportunities," said Rovnar.

In September, we wondered if the web was still a windfall for non-profits. With online donations up 37% in 2006 according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, it is clear that the web, if not yet the main point for charitable donation, is playing an increasingly more important role. As part of that online fundraising strategy, targeting the "wired wealthy" is something that charities should be taking into account.