Calling In Donations

Keep a Child Alive, a charity in Brooklyn, N.Y., that raises money to buy drugs for African children with HIV/AIDS, has been asking supporters to donate to the cause by using their cellphones. The text-message campaign, which was first publicized by the group’s co-founder, the singer Alicia Keys, at her concerts last year, has so far raised a total of $50,000, all of it in $5 gifts.

Donors give by dialing a short code on their phone and then sending the word “alive” as a text message to make a $5 gift that will appear as a one-time charge on their monthly phone bill. They can also have the donation added to their bill by entering their cellphone number into a special box on the charity’s Web site or on social-networking sites, like Facebook.

Elizabeth Santiso, the charity’s vice president, says the text-message campaign is a great way to reach younger donors, and may be an especially fitting fund-raising tool during tough economic times.

“These $5 or $10 donations may be the perfect price point to draw new people in,” she says.

Keep a Child Alive is among the first wave of nonprofit groups to take advantage of a new arrangement that makes it easier and more affordable for charities to run text-messaging campaigns. And starting next month, phone companies will for the first time allow charities to send monthly text messages to donors asking them to repeat their donations.

Another new way for donors to contribute from their cellphone bills was made available through at least one major carrier last month. By calling a special short number and following push-button prompts to choose among participating charities, donors can make a one-time $25 donation that will show up on their bill.

“This is like in the late 1990s at the beginning of online giving, but with more innovations happening more quickly, more charities jumping in, and many more people with the technologya phoneliterally at their fingertips,” says Tony Aiello, senior vice president for business development of Mobile Accord, a mobile-technology consulting and marketing company in Denver.

‘Funny Disconnect’

More than 260 million Americans — or nearly 85 percent of the total population — have cellphones, according to the most-recent estimates available. And from June 2007 to June 2008, the latest time period for which data are available, Americans sent a total of more than 600 billion text messages, a greater than tenfold increase from three years earlier.

But even as the practice of text messaging swells, some observers say mobile giving may not follow along as quickly. They say that the $5 and $10 donations that are the maximum-size gifts allowed through text-messaging may be too small to yield much revenue. They also say that charities might be wary of asking for the small gifts if they think donors may have chosen to give larger gifts through other means.

Katrin Verclas, a co-founder of a global network of activists, nonprofit groups, and others who use mobile phones for advocacy, says it is going to take time for charities to figure out how to get the most out of cellphone technology. She says charities need to experiment and share ideas, as well as to learn how to better integrate text-message campaigns into their overall fund-raising and marketing plans.

“There’s still a funny disconnect where organizations see this as more ad hoc: It looks cool, so let’s just try it,” Ms. Verclas says. “The danger in running a mediocre campaign is that nonprofits will say, ‘That didn’t work,’ and back off the idea.”

Big Changes

Significant changes in the way cellphone companies are accommodating charitable giving through text messaging is helping more charities squeeze support out of cellphones.

Much of the credit for those changes goes to Jim Manis and the Mobile Giving Foundation, a group he created in Bellevue, Wash., to act as a go-between for charities and phone-service carriers.

Before Mobile Giving got involved, text-message fund raising was a spotty and expensive endeavor.

Except when special, one-time deals were struck with cellphone companies (like for disaster relief after Hurricane Katrina), charities would have to make separate arrangements with each carrier for the use of a short code. And fees associated with text-message transactions would typically cut in half the charity’s share of contributions.

Mobile Giving got a number of phone carriers — including AT&T, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile USA, and Verizon Wireless, which together account for more than nine out of 10 cellphones Americans use — to agree to a one-stop process for charities to use short codes.

More important, the carriers also agreed to waive their regular transaction fees and taxes to allow 100 percent of the donations made through text messages to pass through to charities.

Last year, 86 nonprofit groups — including Keep a Child Alive and other organizations, like the United Way and chapters of the Salvation Army — held fund-raising campaigns under the auspices of the Mobile Giving Foundation that brought in nearly $500,000 from text-message donations.

Mr. Manis says that by next year he expects to be working with as many as 1,800 charities, raising as much as $11.5-million.

On Speed Dial

Five charities now run fund-raising campaigns that exploit the short dialing codes. Two companies — Truist, a technology spin-off of the United Way of America, and CharityCall — set up a deal with AT&T to allow cellphone users to call a three-digit abbreviated phone number, then, when prompted by voice, they hit a two-digit code to make a $25 donation to charity. A one-time $25 charge will automatically appear on the user’s monthly phone bill.

The charity, which pays no cost for the service, will receive all but $1.25 of the contribution; that portion goes to fees owed to AT&T, Truist, and CharityCall. Truist and CharityCall say they are working on setting up similar arrangements with other phone carriers.

Robert A. Jones, founder of CharityCall, in Tulsa, Okla., says the idea behind the short-dial donations is to give all cellphone users, not just those versed in text messaging, the opportunity to support causes through their phones.

“It’s a phone call, like dialing 411,” he says. “The beauty of it is that it transcends demographics,” he adds, noting that text messaging is more popular with people under 35 than those who are older.

The Joyful Heart Foundation, a New York group that counsels victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence, started its short-dial campaign last month. It’s too early to judge the returns, says the group’s executive director, Maile M. Zambuto, but she says the deal can only be positive.

“It’s a feel-good, easy thing for people to do, it’s a wonderful way to attract new donors, and it doesn’t cost us anything,” Ms. Zambuto says.

New Approaches

AT&T and the other carriers have recently made additional arrangements with the Mobile Giving Foundation to enhance wireless users’ ability to give. Next month heralds a number of changes in text-message fund raising: Donors will be able to give $10 at a time, rather than half that amount (though the monthly limit will still be capped at $25); charities will be able to automatically solicit recurring gifts from past supporters via text message; and charities will be allowed to send up to three additional messages to those same donors, giving information about their gift or the organization.

Charities that run text-message campaigns through the Mobile Giving Foundation must work with one of five marketing companies that have contracted with the foundation to help run the program. Costs to the charity vary, but a typical campaign might cost $500 in upfront costs, then 25 to 35 cents per donation, depending on the level of services the companies provide, such as advertising. Some companies also charge a monthly fee. Keep a Child Alive pays a total of $200 a month to run its text-message campaign.

Raising the Limits

Some text-message donations are not billed through the cellphone companies, which limit the size of such transactions.

Under those other methods, donors can call or send by text specially assigned numbers that connect them to phone banks where they can make a credit-card gift. Or, if they are attending a charity’s event, like a dance, they can text a pledge that is then displayed on video screens. Donors can fulfill their pledges at the event by cash, check, or credit card, or they will be reminded by text message in the days following the event to go online and complete their donation.

Sophist Productions, an event organizer in New York, is one of the companies that provide what Sophist calls a Text-to-Pledge program. Last year, the company’s program was used at 14 fund-raising events, raising, according to Sophist, a total of $888,000, with the company keeping up to 10 percent of the total gift amount to cover its costs and fees.

The UJA-Federation of New York hired Sophist for the second time at its “Generosity” event in January, a party for donors in their 20s and 30s. Last year, the organization received $41,000 in text pledges. At this year’s event, nearly $60,000 in pledges were made, including some from people who were not at the party, but who could watch it live on the Internet and send their pledges by text.

Michelle Waranch, a fund raiser at the UJA, says the text-message option adds excitement to the event and encourages people to give more than they might have otherwise. At this year’s party, she says, a 23-year-old man sent a text message that was broadcast on big screens challenging his twin brother to give $1,000. The man pledged to give $1,000, and his brother pledged $1,500.

“It was all about the energy in the room,” Ms. Waranch says, adding that the text program demonstrates to young donors that the organization is not tied to outmoded traditions, like passing out pledge cards.

Describing the scene at the party, Ms. Waranch says: “It looked like what it does at any 20s, 30s event: Everyone had a drink in one hand and a cell or their BlackBerrys in the other. But this time, they had permission to use their phones without being rude, and for a very good reason.”