Kenyans Text for Famine Relief

Text-message donations make up a large portion of the money raised by the Kenyans for Kenya campaign. Text-message donations make up a large portion of the money raised by the Kenyans for Kenya campaign.

August 21, 2011 | Read Time: 1 minute

Making charitable gifts via cellphone isn’t just a developed-world phenomenon.

The Kenyans for Kenya campaign is raising money to aid victims of that country’s famine, part of the larger humanitarian crisis affecting the Horn of Africa. The campaign was organized by Safaricom, a large cellphone carrier in Kenya, and KCB, a financial institution that operates in five countries in East Africa, together with leading media companies in Kenya.

While people can make cash donations at KCB branches or via wire transfer, cellphone contributions are the primary way that the donors are making their gifts.

In ten days, the campaign raised more than $4.4-million. The goal is to raise more than $5.3-million in a month. Donations will go toward the Kenya Red Cross Society’s relief efforts.

For more information: Go to http://www.kenyansforkenya.org.

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NICOLE WALLACE

Features Editor

Nicole Wallace is features editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy. She has written about innovation in the nonprofit world, charities’ use of data to improve their work and to boost fundraising, advanced technologies for social good, and hybrid efforts at the intersection of the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, such as social enterprise and impact investing.Nicole spearheaded the Chronicle’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts on the Gulf Coast and reported from India on the role of philanthropy in rebuilding after the South Asian tsunami. She started at the Chronicle in 1996 as an editorial assistant compiling The Nonprofit Handbook.Before joining the Chronicle, Nicole worked at the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs and served in the inaugural class of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps.A native of Columbia, Pa., she holds a bachelor’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University.