More on Mobile

In addition, the adoption of the mobile phone has really taken hold in the last few years. More people have mobile phones, and more people are more comfortable using their phones to do things besides talking. Without that social shift, it's unlikely that the Haiti mobile 
campaign would have had such an impact.

There is one other social shift that is worth mentioning. We are seeing a flattening and a broadening of social participation in any number of activities that were previously the focus of a few. One example of this is in journalism, where we have millions of bloggers and citizen journalists who are reporting on stories that affect us every day. Another example of the flattening and broadening is in the political arena. We saw the power of microdonations, of Twitter and MySpace and Facebook during the Obama campaign. A grassroots movement can quickly become a powerful force. Many small donations can make a big difference.

FS: There are those who would argue that many people who gave $10 text donations to Haiti relief might well have given larger gifts online if they hadn't been presented with an opportunity to give an easy, though smaller and limited, gift via phone.

JK: There is no question that given the same type of publicity and opportunity, many donations far in excess of $10 would have been received. Perhaps the euphoria over the volume of donations masked the limited amounts given. Every day there are stories in the blogosphere extolling the great swell in giving to Haiti (and to some extent, the paucity of giving 
to Chile).

Giving is good. And so when millions of people take out their phones and text a donation to the Red Cross, that is a good thing. I think we would all salute and encourage it. But the tragic truth is that it is going to take a decade or more to rebuild Haiti. And it will take billions — not millions — of dollars to rebuild that devastated and poor country. I worry that many now consider themselves to have "helped." It's not hard to find a friend or colleague who will tell you that they "gave to Haiti relief." As nice as that is, it doesn't do all that much. $40 million — the amount that seems to be accepted as the Haiti text-to-give total (at least for the Red Cross) is wonderful. But it will take giving far in excess of that. And text-to-give won't supply the greater need. It won't even allow charities as big as the Red Cross to follow up with ways a person can help in the future, because most text giving remains anonymous to the charity.