Mobile

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.

FundRaising Success: How would you define where the fundraising sector in the United States is in regard to mobile giving?

Jim Killion: Mobile giving is in its infancy, but with the dramatic results achieved by the Red Cross with text-to-give to Haiti relief, it is now on most people's radar. In many ways, mobile giving is where what is now often referred to as "traditional Internet giving" was six or eight years ago. And just as Internet giving has taken off in the last decade, so will mobile giving. But the move to mobile will be much faster than the move to Internet giving.

After the tragedy in Haiti, the word “mobile” seemed to take on a life of its own. Like most bright, shiny things, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the success we saw with text-to-donate campaigns for Haiti relief. While bringing the use of mobile devices into the nonprofit world is most certainly a positive step, it still must hold up to the standard critiques given to any new method of communication that an organization decides to test when reaching out to their constituents. Here are a few things to mull over as you add SMS to your nonprofit vocabulary.

Interested in mobile giving? Be sure to read "Early Signals on Mobile Philanthropy: Is Haiti the Tipping Point?," a joint study by Convio, Edge Research and Sea Change Strategies analyzing mobile trends and adoption rates across Gen Y, Gen X, baby boomers and mature donors.

Palo Alto, Calif., March 1, 2010 — CauseWorld, the mobile application that allows consumers to give to causes just by entering retail stores and restaurants, has added the option to contribute to the Chile earthquake relief effort. The funds sent to Chile through the app will be facilitated by CauseWorld partner GlobalGiving, a nonprofit aid resource for disaster relief and long-term development around the world.