Mobile

Social media was a game-changing technology that helped alter the course of the 2008 presidential election. In 2012, mobile payments could be the transformational technology, as millions of political supporters are given the ability to collect money on smartphones for candidates. On Monday, President Obama’s re-election campaign announced that it would immediately begin using Square, a mobile payments start-up company, with campaign staffers and some approved volunteers.

Mitt Romney’s campaign plans to announced a similar Republican-themed Square application that will allow campaign officials to collect donations on a smartphone.

With the new year now well under way, U.S. nonprofit groups have indicated that they likely will place heavy emphasis on social media and mobile solutions to drive stronger fundraising and marketing results in coming months, according to Charity Dynamics’ 2012 Digital Marketing Survey.

The survey, which includes feedback from 70 Charity Dynamics clients, revealed shifting priorities in some areas of nonprofits’ marketing plans for the year ahead. 

Among them, 73 percent of respondents indicated that their organizations plan to address social media strategies in 2012.

Nonprofit Susan G. Komen has tapped several mobile channels to bolster charity donations and registrants.

The QR codes are part of Susan G. Komen’s Passionately Pink for the Cure campaign, which helps raise money for breast cancer research. The mobile bar codes will be appearing in print materials through March.

The Susan G. Komen mobile bar codes appear in advertisements in Marie Claire magazine.

The Passionately Pink for the Cure campaign encourages users to register on the nonprofit’s mobile site at http://m.komen.org to sign up and start a local fundraiser in their community.

As part of our January cover story, we asked some fundraising pros to fill in these blanks: "My favorite trend right now is ______. I would like to see _____ just go away." Some of their answers were pretty surprising, with things likes mobile giving, special events and good ol' No. 10s being wished off the face of the fundraising earth.

"Smash" star Katharine McPhee has joined forces with Malaria No More on the “Dream Big” campaign, an effort to help end malaria deaths in Africa and help children achieve their dreams. Beginning Jan. 17, people can text “DREAM” to 85944 for the chance to take a trip to Africa with Katharine McPhee and make a $10 donation to Malaria No More; every donation will treat a child for malaria.

Charitable donations from mobile phones have grown more common in recent years. Two thirds (64%) of American adults now use text messaging, and 9% have texted a charitable donation from their mobile phone.

And these text donors are emerging as a new cohort of charitable givers. The first-ever, in-depth study on mobile donors by The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project — which analyzed the “Text to Haiti” campaign after the 2010 earthquake — finds that these contributions were often spur-of-the-moment decisions that spread virally through friend networks.

Ted Hart speaks with Kendall Webb, founder and executive director of JustGive.org, about online and mobile giving on his Nonprofit Coach radio show.

Soon, the holiday sounds of coins clinking into red kettles may disappear, replaced by the silence of a credit card swipe. The Salvation Army has begun shifting into digital donations, as fewer and fewer shoppers carry much change or bills.

This year, the charity is testing the use of Square, a mobile payments startup that allows anyone to accept credit card payments via mobile devices.

Zoove, the exclusive provider of the StarStar mobile platform, announced the availability a new mobile giving option for making donations via mobile phone. Users can automatically make a $10 donation to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project when they call HERO (4376) from their mobile phones.

At Facebook's developer conference, f8, Artez Interactive, a multichannel fundraising solutions provider, announced a new Facebook app that enables friends to share the charities and social causes they support through the Facebook Platform.

Artez created the app for several high-profile charities who will soon launch the feature including Free The Children, Canadian Diabetes Association, Canadian Red Cross, Kids Help Phone, SickKids Foundation, The Baycrest Foundation and the Leukaemia Foundation of Australia.