Cellphone Giving Not Without Its Potential Drawbacks, Says Advocate

The unprecedented success of text-message giving after last week’s earthquake in Haiti is not without potential drawbacks, according to a leading proponent of cellphone fund raising.

“The upside is that it lets people respond very quickly,” says Katrin Verclas, co-founder of MobileActive.org. “That’s great because it allows organizations to develop a donor base of people who they wouldn’t necessarily otherwise get.”

But she says, there’s a danger that some of those $5 and $10 gifts might be coming at the expense of donations that would have been larger had the donor gone to the charity’s Web site.

“For something like Haiti, which is so catastrophic and so massive in size and need, it might have the effect of people feeling like, ‘Oh, but I already gave,’” says Ms. Verclas.

To make sure that doesn’t happen, relief organizations need to look at a text-message gift as the first step in a potential relationship, she says.

Soon after someone has made a cellphone gift, while the crisis is still fresh in their minds, organizations should provide donors with feedback about their work in Haiti and try to persuade them to get more involved, Ms. Verclas advises.

After the American Red Cross’s cellphone campaign passed the $20-million mark would have been a great time to send a text message along the lines of “You’re amazing. Collectively, you all raised $20-million. Stay involved. Give us your e-mail address,” she says. “Something that gives feedback, that engages me as a donor, so I don’t feel like that text message was sent into the wind.”

Ms. Verclas says she made text-message donations to all of the relief organizations that are running cellphone campaigns, but that none of them have followed up on her donation.

She hopes that changes and that charities figure out how to turn some of the people who made cellphone contributions into ongoing donors who make larger gifts through other channels.

“What is $10 on a phone bill?” she asks. “That’s a few cups of coffee.”

(Learn more about cellphone donations in this article from The Chronicle’s archive.)