November 5, 2010 | Read Time: 1 minute
The ability to ask for more than $10 via cellphone has long been on charities’ fund-raising wishlist. And after this holiday season, that wish might just come true.
From now until December 31, two charities are conducting holiday campaigns that will test whether donors are willing to make $25 contributions via text messages.
One of the chief criticisms of cellphone fund raising has been the small size of donations charities could solicit. To date, organizations have had the choice of asking for either $5 or $10 gifts. When a donor gives via text message, the contribution appears on their cellphone bill, and the cellphone carrier then forwards the money to the charity, usually through a nonprofit organization that serves as a middleman.
In addition to testing donors’ appetite for making larger text-message gifts, the trial is designed to help cellphone carriers assess whether the larger donation size will affect their operations.
With gifts of $5 and $10, wireless carriers have had a low rate of requests for refunds or instances in which customers failed to pay their bill after the company advanced a donation to a charity, says Jenifer Snyder, executive director of the mGive Foundation, which is organizing the test. She says the trial will help the companies determine whether the higher gift amount will push those rates up.
“Without our carrier partners, this channel wouldn’t be possible,” says Ms. Snyder, “so we need to ensure that it’s a very efficient price point for all parties involved.”
Ms. Snyder declined to name the two charities that will test the $25 donations but said that the groups will be announcing their holiday mobile campaigns in the next two weeks.
