February 14, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
Thanks to the efforts of a Washington nonprofit organization, charitable giving via cellphones may be poised to take off this year, Katrin Verclas, co-founder of MobileActive.org, a global network of activists and nonprofit groups that use mobile phones for advocacy, writes on the organization’s blog.
Giving via text messaging has been slow to gain traction in the United States because telephone carriers typically keep more than half of the money donated.
The Mobile Giving Foundation, however, is negotiating with the four major carriers to waive those fees for nonprofit organizations that run their fund-raising campaigns through the foundation, Jim Manis, the foundation’s chief executive officer, told MobileActive in an interview.
According to Mr. Manis, the Mobile Giving Foundation would take a 10-percent cut of the money raised from appeals approved by and run under its auspices, a fee that he says would probably drop to 5 percent once the volume of cellphone fund raising increases.
“We are trying to change the game for nonprofits,” said Mr. Manis. “We want nonprofits to have access to new demographics, so rather than look for that one person who can write a $10,000 check, an organization can tap into a younger demographic of 10,000 people who text in a $10 contribution.”
While the negotiations with the telephone carriers for a long-term deal are still under way, the foundation was able to secure agreements for a United Way campaign to raise money for its youth- fitness programs.
A television ad — featuring the New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady — that ran during the Super Bowl kicked off the campaign, which has so far raised about $10,000.
Do you think cellphone campaigns have the potential to become an important form of fund raising? Is it something your organization would try?
(See a Chronicle article about cellphone fund raising.)
