The American Red Cross reports it is receiving $10 text message donations for aid to Haiti at a rate of $100,000 per hour! Text message giving accounted for one-quarter of the donations received by the Red Cross within the first 48 hours after the quake.
Readers, have any of your organizations tried a text message campaign? What do you think: promising channel for donations, or short-lived fad?
4 comments:
I believe text messaging is a promising channel for donations. It works particularly well for natural disaster and other emergency-based fundraising. I believe it also has great potential for political campaign fundraising. Really, any situation in which the aim is to attract millions of donors with smaller gifts, texting has been shown to be very successful.
P.S. I've heard about another texting campaign in higher ed that worked well. Apparently, some large universities will make an ask during well-attended football games and provide a channel for giving by text. Everyone in the audience pulls out their phones at the same time and texts their gifts to the athletic program.
Ooh, I can see how texting would work well in the context of athletics, or some other big group gathering. Thanks for pointing that out! I wonder how the perception of texting as an activity of connection with your peers (vs. writing a letter or filling out an online form, most of which we never do in relation to our social circle -- alas, poor USPS) might influence this dynamic. And it's so instant -- there's something appealing about that too.
Texting may very well be the wave of the future for easy fundraising ideas. What faster way can you think of to raise money quickly and efficiently. Does anyone know of a fundraising company that can help groups with this type of fundraiser?
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