Fundraising Through Mobile Giving Initiatives

Mobile Donations in the US
In the US, a mobile donor can make a $5 or $10 donation per text message. The amount is determined by the non profit charitable organization, so the donor can decide whether or not to make a donation but not how much to give. Pre-paid mobile plans can also be used to make donations.
The donor sends a text message to a short code with a keyword, like any other text message. For example, for the Haiti campaign, mobile donors sent the word HAITI to 90999 and a $10 donation was automatically added to their mobile phone bill.
Once the keyword has been sent to the short code (e.g., 'HAITI' to 90999), the donor receives a message back that asks her to confirm the donation with an OK or YES response. The donor confirms the donation and the next time the donor receives their mobile bill, the $10 donation will appear on the statement. There may be other messages sent to the donor, including opt-in marketing messages, etc.
Fees for Mobile Giving
The fees related to mobile fundraising can include one-time costs for set-up, recurring monthly costs which can also include other services like text message campaigns or extra keywords, and the actual transaction costs for the mobile donations.
There are some providers who charge fees as low as $99 and allow charitable organizations to begin mobile giving campaigns almost immediately.
Depending on your mobile giving volume and contractual agreement with a provider, you could be looking at a couple of thousand dollars or more each month as a cost base for a mobile giving initiative.
Service Providers
There are a couple of different players in the mobile giving chain. Trusted third parties sit between the mobile carriers and non profit fundraising organizations. Their job is to validate your organization so the mobile carrier knows it's a true tax-exempt, non profit organization.
The trusted third party receives the donation payments from the mobile carrier and then pays the fundraising organization. Two trusted third party organizations in the US are the Mobile Giving Foundation and the mGive Foundation.
The charitable fundraising organization will work directly with what's called an application service provider (ASP). ASPs provide your organization with short codes and keywords that can be used to facilitate the mobile giving initiative (e.g., text the word 'HAITI' to 90999).
They may also offer CRM, e-mail marketing, and other tools your organization can use to further connect with donors. The ASP is the primary point of contact for the non profit fundraising organization and will arrange the contract with the trusted third party.
What About Security?
The mobile donation process is fast and secure. As I said above, the amount of the mobile donation is set by the organization at either $5 or $10 and the number of charitable donations that can be made in any given month is typically capped at 5 or less. This limits the exposure and risk of the donor and the fundraising organization.
The non profit charity fundraising organization also has limited information about the donor; the only information provided to the organization is the donor's mobile phone number. Donor's can opt-out of further communications by replying to a fundraiser's message with the words STOP or NO.
Keep in mind it could take 90 days or more before your charity receives the funds from donations. Currently, donations are filtered to the fundraising organization from the mobile carriers via one of two trusted third parties: The Mobile Giving Foundation and the mGive Foundation.
Mobile giving can be a great addition to your integrated marketing campaigns. More information about setting up an account and getting started is available at the links above.
Author Bio:
Gene De Libero helps people and companies innovate, compete and succeed. Find out more at http://www.genedelibero.com.
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