mobile giving

I’ve been struggling with how to include this ramble about mobile giving and finally decided just to do it. Please skip this post if you're not interested :)

It's bright and shiny, "convenient" and "instant"… the U.S. is more comfortable with text-to-give now because of campaigns like Haiti. Here's what I think are the key components of the Red Cross' success with text-to-give for Haiti:
1. Urgent, highly emotional issue – utter devastation of the poorest country in the western hemisphere
2. Immediate, graphic, totally saturated media coverage
3. Highly-portable and accessible call to action/donation – text-to-give
4. Widely-known and well-respected American Red Cross brand

Many nonprofits are now launching text-to-give campaigns without a Haiti-scale issue (thank goodness we don't have more Haiti-scale issues!). Some are creating compelling issues (equating a single urgent, graphic concept to the donation) but aren't getting widespread media coverage. Twitter, Facebook and email only go so far.* Lacking coverage, promotion costs money.

If they overcome or work around #1, #2 and #4 and spend the upfront cost/time for a text-to-give campaign, they're still taking (hopefully calculated) risk. Will the return come through on their investment? Making $32M like the Red Cross is unlikely. Additionally, promotion of text-to-give to existing donors (Twitter, Facebook, email) can negatively impact the success of your other giving channels. “If you pushed just one person to give via mobile who otherwise would have given by any other medium …you'll end up trading away involved, ongoing donors for anonymous, one-time, no-connection, low-dollar gifts.”
 
*I know that people access social media and email on their mobile devices... which probably means that they also access the interwebs on their mobile and can follow a link to a mobile-friendly online donation form – with higher increments than a texted $2, $5 or $10.

All that said, I believe it's worth a try as long as expectations are in check. As always on my blog, all of this is strictly my opinion – all of it. I think Haiti was unique. And I dread the text-to-give campaign that will rival it – only because of the tragedy it will likely support.