Mobile

--(PR.com)-- Fundraising and Communication Goes MobileThe Kids In Need Foundation, a national, non-profit organization dedicated to providing free school supplies to economically disadvantaged school children and under-funded teachers, announced it is growing their mobile communications capabilities. This includes text-to-donate capacity through SMS, Twitter and SMTP. In addition, the Foundation has the ability to create mobile polls and broadcast messages directly to donors mobile phones.Supporters can text SCHOOL to 85944 to make a $10 donation to Kids In Need Foundation.*The Kids In Need Foundation is also part of the MobileCause uGive iPhone application. This mobile technology facilitates donations and allows

When the Haiti earthquake hit back in January, the outcry and response were swift and plentiful. In this new era of the iPhone and other mobile devices, the biggest buzz in the fundraising sector was generated from the mobile-giving explosion following the disaster. But the biggest takeaway for fundraisers — all of them, not just disaster-relief organizations — is that donors have certain, higher expectations these days, and your organization must meet them.

Even the tradition-bound classical music world has embraced the democratizing influence of new technology, allowing audiences to participate in programming in a way that would have been unthinkable a short time ago. It is less surprising that music organizations are using the technology to sell themselves or raise money.

To one degree or another, many orchestras have experimented with audience texting, a subject that was discussed at a meeting of marketers and public relations executives from the League of American Orchestras in the fall of 2008.

The mHealth Alliance, which comprises several nonprofit organizations seeking to improve health in underserved communities through sustainable mobile campaigns, has called for collaboration to accelerate the use of mobile and other modern information and communications technologies to improve maternal and newborn health in developing nations.

The GSMA announced the details of a further seven grantees from the Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) Fund, which is administered by the GSMA Foundation, Inc., with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. New grantees are Cellcard in Cambodia, Digicel in Fiji, Orange in West Africa, Safaricom in Kenya, Tata Indicom in India, Telenor in Pakistan, and Tigo in Africa.

“Just 15 months after we first announced the launch of the Mobile Money for the Unbanked Programme we are proud to announce that all funds have been committed in support of mobile money deployments across the globe,” said Gavin Krugel, Director GSMA. “Projects were chosen on their ability to deliver, speed of delivery, scale and sophistication. Between now and the end of 2011 millions of consumers are expected to directly benefit from mobile money services launched with the support of the Fund – that is 170 million customers at the base of the economic pyramid and who previously lacked access to financial services, from 19 operators in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.”

The response from donors following January's earthquake in Haiti came in fast and furious — to the tune of tens of millions of dollars flooding in through every channel imaginable. From online donations to mobile text-to-give to traditional mail, the response was overwhelming. But questions also arose about today's giving environment, especially in a crisis. How do you keep new donors engaged? Is this the sign of a mobile revolution? How can you mobilize funds quickly and efficiently? How do you prepare for emergencies?

April 28, 2010, Mobile Commerce Daily — Fifty percent of nonprofit organizations expect to adopt mobile donor engagement and fundraising in the next two years, according to Kaptivate Group.

Currently, 36 percent of the organizations use mobile media or plan to deploy a mobile channel this year. Nonprofit adoption of mobile is expected to grow significantly in 2010.

In the wake of the earthquake that devastated Haiti in January, lots of folks are holding out hope that text-to-give and other mobile apps will be the Next Big Thing.

I'm not the most handy guy around, so, for the safety of my family, I don't have a lot of power tools. But a while back, I got a drill. I needed to make small, round holes in some things, and the drill helped me do it with great efficiency and a lot of cool noise. I loved that drill. It made holes in nearly anything I wanted to put a hole in. A kind of drill rapture overtook me. I saw that drill as the most elegant tool in the box. So much better than those boring hammers and screwdrivers.

After the devastating earthquake in Haiti earlier this year, more and more people are texting to give. If it brings in donations from people who wouldn't otherwise give or from folks who then will go on to give larger contributions online or in the mail, that's a good thing — a great thing, actually, to the tune of more than $30 
million just days after the quake hit.