Katrin Verclas

(Editor’s Note: Mobile maven Katrin Verclas let us know last week that there have been some pretty positive developments on the mobile-giving scene since she last wrote about it for Giving 2.0 sister e-letter the FS Advisor in February. Here’s her latest update, in case you missed it at MobileActive.org.) Mobile donations to nonprofits have been stymied in the United States — hampered by the high fees charged for text message gifts that are then billed to a mobile-phone customer. When a donor gives to a nonprofit via text, more than half of the contribution goes to the telephone carrier, leaving less than 50

The numbers speak for themselves: There currently are 236 million cell phone users in the United States — an astounding 76 percent penetration. In December of last year alone, 18.7 billion text messages were sent — up 92 percent from 9.7 billion in December 2005. Estimates predict 195 billion text messages were sent in 2007 — that is 600 million a day. Fundraisers and nonprofits are salivating at the prospect of reaching all of these people where they are, at the moment they’re moved by a cause and are able to give — with a few simple flicks of their thumbs. Mobile fundraising for

Editor’s Note: Perhaps the best way for nonprofit organizations to learn how to effectively increase their online presence through innovative multichannel programs is to look to their peers that already are utilizing Web 2.0 channels for advocacy, friendraising and fundraising. We asked Katrin Verclas, executive director of NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network, to talk about some of the organizations that she sees as leading the way.