Text Donations
Texting for charities started with a text to give program in 2009, and was popularized in January by the Red Cross to raise funds for the earthquake in Haiti. They raised over 2 million dollars within the first 24 hours of the program and raised over $30 million total. This sounded pretty great to other non-profits. What a great idea–raising money with virtually no work.
This was not so. Recently, I read an article in the New York Times, “Nonprofits Rush to Solicit Donations via Text, but the System Is Flawed.” The Red Cross is a large nonprofit, with a lot of funds, but smaller organizations won’t yield the same results. The costs tend to outweigh the benefits of using this fund-raising tool. There are three main reasons.
First, text donations are limited to $5 or $10 donations. People who may have donated larger amounts forgo donating larger amounts through traditional methods–direct mail, online, phone pledges.
The second issue is short codes. Short codes are 5 digit codes that you send the donation to. The Red Cross uses 90999. They cost $12,000 and are limited. Organizations can share short codes, but that can make it confusing for donors.
Advertising is the last issue. The Red Cross had the support of the National Football League (NFL) when they were raising money for Haiti. The NFL ran countless ads promoting the campaign. Here, at the Oregon Trail Chapter we have the Blazers to run ads for us during games. If a nonprofit doesn’t have that kind of support, they may not have a successful campaign.
In general, the text to donate issue is revolutionary. People under 30 use texting as a main form of communication. If they work out certain kinks, such as a $12,000 short code, I think that this would be a great way for nonprofits to rake in cash. Maybe if horoscope and date-texting businesses go out of business, it will leave more numbers/codes available for nonprofits at lower costs.
Just a side note and in the spirit of giving: text Gift to 90999 to make a $25 donation to the Red Cross!
