November 30, 2010 | Read Time: 1 minute
This holiday season, the American Center for Law and Justice and the American Red Cross, both in Washington, are conducting holiday campaigns that will test whether donors are willing to make $25 contributions via text messages.
People who make a $25 text-message gift to the Red Cross will receive a link to download a badge for their Facebook page, which the organization hopes will spread the word about the campaign.
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 his or her 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 bills after the company had 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.”
The campaigns will run through December 31.
