mGive

ClearSky Mobile Media Inc., a leading provider of mobile data services and content to regional wireless carriers, announced its alignment with The mGive Foundation to facilitate mobile donations from wireless subscribers via premium SMS (P-SMS).

Billions of charitable dollars were donated last year via text messaging, as thousands of charities integrated mobile donations into their fundraising efforts. Support for short codes allows consumers to make contributions to their charity of choice directly from their mobile phones.

mGive will provide the technology platform behind several mobile donation campaigns raising funds for the Japan earthquake and Pacific tsunami relief efforts, including:

• The American Red Cross – Text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10
• Convoy of Hope – Text TSUNAMI to 50555 to donate $10
• GlobalGiving – Text JAPAN to 50555 to donate $10
• World ReliefCorp of National Association of Evangelicals – Text WAVE to 50555 to donate $10

This week's insider news includes new partnerships that will connect nonprofits with private foundations, expand mobile-giving capabilities and get telecommunications technology to developing countries more quickly.

Mobile donations serve as a great complement to more traditional giving channels such as direct mail, e-mail and online giving, according to recent findings from a survey commissioned by The mGive Foundation. The survey revealed that 86 percent of respondents who give to an organization via SMS-based mobile campaigns would consider giving larger dollar amounts via alternative giving channels.

In addition, 80 percent of survey respondents who were regular online and/or direct mail donors indicated that donating money via text would not preclude them from giving a larger amount via alternative channels.

mGive announced that it is powering the mobile donation industry’s first $25 text donation campaign launched by the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ). Through this campaign, individuals can text LIFE to 50555 to donate $25 to the ACLJ, an organization dedicated to protecting freedom, life, and religious liberties in the United States and internationally.

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.

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.

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.

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.