Mobile

Recently the San Diego Foundation became the first community foundation in the U.S. to develop free apps. Here, SDF's Adrienne Vargas and Heather Back provide some important factors for organizations considering launching a mobile app.

Square, a mobile payments startup company, announced that political organizations can mobilize their campaign staffs and empower them to accept credit and debit card contributions on their mobile devices on behalf of their organizations. Political organizations authorize individual staff members to accept payments on behalf of their campaigns from their Square accounst. Once staff members sign up, they download the free Square Card Reader app and receive a free card reader. When staff members collect payments, funds are deposited in the campaign’s bank account the next business day.

allAware, the free Web and mobile app solution for nonprofits, is now available on the iPhone. A mobile private social network for nonprofit organizations, allAware improves communication and member involvement while also providing support for mobile donations.

The creators of a newly approved political donation-by-text message platform find themselves at a boom-or-bust juncture.

In their perfect world, the Republican and Democratic national conventions will be political telethons of sorts, where viewers instantaneously text $10 to “OBAMA” or “ROMNEY” — a potential windfall for all.

But at the moment, the companies who want to run the donations by text message system are in drawn-out talks with major mobile phone carriers to figure out how it will all work and how much of a cut everyone will take.

Sage North America announced that Girl Scout troops across the U.S. using Sage Mobile Payments sold more during the 2012 Cookie Program. Earlier this year, Sage announced its partnership with more than 30 Girl Scout councils, representing more than 40,000 troops, to add mobile payment via credit or debit card as an option for sales of Samoas, Tagalongs, Thin Mints and eight other cookie varieties.

You can already send money to your favorite charity via text message. Now it may not be long before you’ll be able to do the same for political candidates. On June 11 the Federal Election Commission unanimously agreed to let campaigns begin accepting modest political contributions via mobile messaging, a ruling that even campaign finance watchdogs lobbied for as an antidote to the influence of billionaire-funded superPACs.

Click & Pledge introduced the first “QR-PayCard,” a hybrid credit card payment alternative that integrates the convenience of QR code mobile phone scanning with pre-approved credit card payments and Salesforce.com. The QR-PayCard is designed for nonprofit and business applications. Each organization may custom design the QR-PayCard graphics to reflect its brand.

On Leap Day, I hopped on an early-morning train down to Washington, D.C., to attend the 2012 Nonprofit Mobile Day prior to the Washington Nonprofit Conference. And in the opening keynote, David Balcom, managing director of digital platforms at the American Cancer Society, laid out why mobile matters.

Sage North America announced it has partnered with numerous Girl Scout Councils to add mobile payment as an option for cookie sales. To date, 32 Girl Scout Councils in 23 states, representing more than 40,000 troops, can now use Sage Mobile Payments, Sage’s Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant mobile payments product.

Girl Scout Councils are primarily funded through the cookie program and fundraising activities.

Small charities will now get more opportunities to conduct low-cost fundraising efforts by text message under a deal announced Tuesday. But they’ll have to do so under new guidelines designed to prevent fraud.

A deal between the Mobile Giving Foundation, which connects charities to mobile carriers, and the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, a nonprofit connected with the Council of Better Business Bureaus, seeks to assure donors that their $5 to $10 text donations will go to trustworthy charities.