Text Message Campaign :Sometimes Smaller is Better than Larger!

A Text message campaign centers around "microdonations". A microdonation through texting is in the amount of $5 or $10 per donation, although multiple donations can be made at any one time to a maximum of $30 per month based on a person’s cellphone number. Essential benefits of a microdonation campaign are threefold, where the aggregate of donations can be quite large and equal to traditional campaigns for the same time, effort and investment.

First, a microdonaton text message campaign allows for an immediate response to a call to action. Similar to the pavlovian bell ringing response, a heartfelt outreach especially when done by a well known personality, can have incredible motivating effects to act in the moment. Any delay between receipt of a call to action, such as on television or in print, expectedly results in a drop off of intended donorship. Minimization of this latency by empowering cellphone users to be able to donate from the device that’s with them 24/7, is the means of eliminating or reducing such donor delay fallout.

Second, there is an incredible body of wired and networked populace that has yet to donate, for a number of reasons:

1. They cannot be reached by print media.
2. The cannot be reached by television.
3. They have no credit cards for donations.

What this means is that there is an incredible opportunity to encourage a microdonation in order to commence a relationship with this demographic. Remember they do not yet have any specific charitable allegiances. The beauty of a text message campaign is that the donor's mobile telephone number is gathered, which is subject to privacy limitations, may prospectively be utilized for both further donations as well as to maintain and develop a future relationship. Perhaps the latter aspect of relationship building is most important from the perspective of bringing in new donors into the donor lifecycle funnel, where once acquired the value of that donor over their lifetime is potentially geometrically that of their initial microdonation.

Finally, the text message campaign is electronic – no more spending a disproporationate time and expense to access mass small donors. The 80/20 rule has been turned on its ear with mobile donations. For a small upfront fee and percent of donations collected, scalabilty is infinite where the ability to collect 100 through a 100,000 donations is the same. Text message campaigns offer ecomonies of scale previously unheard of.

So this is how in today’s digital age smaller can be better than larger , using a text message campaign for the right reasons with an eye to what this tip of the iceberg disruptive technology, offers charities and not for profits, immediate and future returns. Set up a text message campaign with ZipGive today.

Mobile Giving is Growing!

Think about how Mobile Giving can help you get millions of people, together quickly and motivate them to contribute to a single cause? If the Haiti earthquake, the Pakistani floods and Gulf oil cleanup are any indication, launch a call to action which can be actualized by the device that most people now have with them 24/7, their cell phone. The link between a call to action and taking action is now rendered almost instantaneous by way of the ability to make text donations through the cellphone. Donations are collected by the cellular carriers and remitted directly to the charity or non-profit completing the process of mobile giving.

Acceptance of using the cellphone for what is, at its most basic, a monetary transaction, was slow to develop, until the watershed of Haiti. Haiti changed the landscape of mobile giving, expectedly because of the urgency and the almost all pervasive media coverage that mobilized pretty much everyone with a heart to do something. Those that couldn’t go, gave. Those that couldn’t give in large amounts, were offered for the very first time the ability to make a micro mobile donation – just as effective in the aggregate, but incredibly useful on a personal level – the opening of the electronic wallet by mobile giving companies was easy since it came in biteable chunks of $5 or $10.

This recognition of the cellphone as no longer a communications medium, but a lifestyle device that interconnects a person’s contacts, music, news, and increasingly finances with mobile banking, realizes the vision of the mobile device as a medium of commerce. Enabling this transition from handover economics of opening one’s physical wallet or pocketbook, is a preconditioning born of internet commerce for which online credit card transaction are now commonplace, where only 4-5 years ago such were regarded with a pervasive scepticism.

As the Bedouins say, once the nose of the camel has opened the tent the body is bound to follow – so are the incursions into validating the mobile device as an instrument of commerce through mobile giving, undoubtedly leading to transactions of greater size and scope being conducted by the lowly cellphone. The key difference from prior incursions is that the cellphone carries with it a unique identifier in the associated telephone number, which the device owner is unlikely to change when changes to devices, carriers or plans are made … and this telephone number is recorded upon initiation of the mobile giving transaction. Subject to applicable privacy policies and related limitations, the benefiting charity of the mobile donation now has a direct means to recontact the donor.

It’s this ongoing conversation capability, as the precursor to establishing a lasting relationship, why mobile giving will continue to grow. Coupled with existing mobile CRM technologies that permit send to friend functionality, this touchpoint of a donor’s telephone number has the potential for a viral explosion of mobile giving, the next time there’s a call to action.

Charities and non-profits can’t lag behind utilizing mobile giving as their competition for the charitable donation or dollar will be developing the relationships made possible by starting with mobile giving, and once developed any existing relationship is hard to displace. The time for mobile giving is now – charities and non-profits should grow with it!

Take Advantage of Text Message Fundraising

Text Message Fundraising uses a mobile communication method known as SMS which is also known as a text message. Non profit organizations use SMS as a way to not only market their cause and gain awareness, but also to increase fundraising dollars. Its an efficient, economical, and environmental way to raise dollars for non profit organizations.

A person responds to a keyword by opting into the fundraising campaign. That person then alerts the cell phone carrier that they want to make a donation. The carriers confirm that the user wants to make a donation and the dollar amount is added onto his next bill. Its a simple way for organizations to collect donations and a simple way for people to donate through text message advertising.

An example of text message fundraising is the American Red Cross. It had raised funds to help victims of the earthquake in Haiti. People texted the word "haiti" to a specified short code to donate $10. There are many organizations not only supporting themselves with this service but also the cause. We know its difficult for organizations to raise enough money to even support what they are doing, and Text Message Fundraising allows people to donate smaller amounts very easily, but small amounts turn into large figures quickly.

There are many relief groups that were able to use text message fundraising to get instant, small-scale contributions from donors who were ready to help immediately.

Many non profit organization are excited about the potential possibilities that exist with text message fundraising.

ZipGive makes it easy for any organization of any size to implement the program. Check out our SMS fundraising prices page to learn how you can implement this program quickly so that not only you can support your organization but support your cause.