Mobile

Here are seven ways  nonprofits can solve the mobile giving puzzle by using cell phones to rake in the cash.

When the mobile-giving revolution does pop, let your inner Integrator answer the call (or text, if you will), but remember that there's no such thing as a silver bullet, no magic pill, no one strategy that will ensure an organization's fundraising success in perpetuity. The one and only, true Next Big Thing is, was and always will be integration.

There is a growing number of apps in the app store that claim to provide some kind of fundraising benefit to nonprofits, and they approach the challenge from a variety of angles. But the most effective fundraising app of all may not even claim to be one: Facebook.

Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash has launched a mobile giving campaign to benefit Educare Arizona, a platform of the Steve Nash Foundation. The Phoenix Suns designated Friday, Feb. 4 “Educare – Early Learning Night at the Phoenix Suns,” while Nash and the home team match up against Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder.

U.S. cell phone users can make a $10 donation to the Steve Nash Foundation in its support of Educare Arizona by texting NASH to 20-222.*

Mobile donations serve as a great complement to more traditional giving channels such as direct mail, e-mail and online giving, according to recent findings from a survey commissioned by The mGive Foundation. The survey revealed that 86 percent of respondents who give to an organization via SMS-based mobile campaigns would consider giving larger dollar amounts via alternative giving channels.

In addition, 80 percent of survey respondents who were regular online and/or direct mail donors indicated that donating money via text would not preclude them from giving a larger amount via alternative channels.

Check out 10 of Heather Mansfield's 22 ways nonprofits can use QR codes for fundraising and awareness campaigns.

DENVER, Jan. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The mGive Foundation (www.mgive.org), the leading 501(c)(3) public charity supporting U.S. mobile donation campaigns, today announced it has partnered with to provide regional-area wireless subscribers with the capability to participate in mobile giving campaigns – a first in the regional wireless industry. GetLisa is a regional carrier aggregator that provides service to 40 regional wireless carriers. Through GetLisa's infrastructure messaging solutions, subscribers in rural areas can access the mobile giving channel quickly and easily to donate to

At the Direct Marketing Fundraisers Association Year-End Luncheon, veteran fundraising expert Roger Craver, founder of DonorTrends and editor of The Agitator, shared five fundraising trends to get on top of in 2011.

The Vascular Disease Foundation (VDF) has added mobile giving to its list of donation offerings. The campaign is the first of its kind for VDF and will continue into 2011. All proceeds raised from the mobile giving campaign will benefit those affected by vascular disease.

Passing along info from today's Agitator, which addresses the brewhaha over how difficult Apple makes it for nonprofits to collect donations from within iPhone apps. There's a petition going around that nonprofits need to know about and sign.