Mobile

Charitable donations are shifting from collection trays and kettles to laptops and cellphones as more nonprofits turn to online and mobile fundraising.

From Facebook to Colorado Gives Day, high-tech campaigns are sweeping the nonprofit world.

Leveraging technology from Denver-based mGive, the Salvation Army is testing a text-message fundraiser this holiday season to supplement its traditional Red Kettle Christmas campaign.

It ushers in a new phase of mobile giving, which might soon include higher single-donation limits, corporate sponsors and deeper engagement between nonprofits and donors via texts.

Soon, you’ll be able to text message your donation to the local United Way.

Starting Nov. 22, the agency is using donation texting to reach out to younger generations and gen-Xers who don’t respond to the traditional appeals for contributions.

The United Way also hopes donation texting announcements will be made during sports games and other community events so donations can happen en masse

The ability to ask for more than $10 via cellphone has long been on charities’ fund-raising wishlist. And after this holiday season, that wish might just come true.

From now until December 31, two charities are conducting holiday campaigns that will test whether donors are willing to make $25 contributions via text messages.

The mGive Foundation (www.mgive.org), the leading 501(c)(3) public charity enabling and processing mobile donation campaigns in the United States, today announced that it has initiated a $25 mobile donation trial with most major domestic mobile carriers. The mobile donation trial raises the maximum mobile donation amount from $10 to $25, a first in the mobile donation industry.

Hawaii’s people and businesses are as generous as ever, despite the economic slump.

But how local people and businesses give is rapidly changing and that transformation has some nonprofit leaders heartened, while others are worried. Optimists welcome the decay of what they saw as paternalistic philanthropy. These optimists see the rise of a new philanthropy in which individual donors are more empowered, and nonprofit success is rewarded with recognition and more donations.

Texted donations currently are limited to $5 and $10 increments and capped by mobile phone companies at five a month from a single phone. Some nonprofits worry that they will cannibalize gifts that might come in larger amounts through more traditional channels like direct mail and online.

Perhaps most important, many nonprofits simply cannot afford the kind of promotional campaign needed to publicize mobile giving efforts, nor do they benefit from the kind of exposure that a round-the-clock, disaster-driven news event provides.

Analyzing trends in the fundraising world is important on many levels. It lets you know what's happening in the industry, what that may mean for the future and how it compares to the past. Studying trends also lets you know where you stand compared to other organizations, allowing you to pinpoint what your organization is doing well and what it needs to work on.

The mobile-giving industry has the potential to change the face of global philanthropy. The first U.S. campaign was a 10-second 2008 Super Bowl ad that raised $10,000 for United Way. That year $300,000 in text donations went to just over 100 charities. So far in 2010, mobile giving in the U.S. has brought in 100 times that ($50 million), for five times as many organizations.

There's much debate underway regarding the effectiveness of traditional fundraising sources. We're hearing a lot about social media, the importance of websites, emerging technologies and the transitioning of direct mail to electronic media.

The demographic sands are shifting — there will be an increasing number of older donors with more disposable income as the baby boomer generation matures, and those donors are going to have to use technology to support their nonprofit organizations of choice. With the likely long-term demise of checks as a method of payment, nonprofits are going to need to make sure their technology is incredibly easy to use so anyone can utilize it.