The American Red Cross received over $22 million in Haiti relief from mobile donations — far surpassing the $400,000 record for other disasters. In fact, donations via mobile devices comprised one fifth of the American Red Cross’s total donations for Haiti relief. Mobile proved to be a dominant player in Haiti relief and set a precedent for how charities receive donations in the future.
We expect mobile charitable donations and engagement to increase exponentially as iPhone’s, Blackberry’s and Android’s and non-smartphones play a more intimate role in our daily lives. Let’s look at the American Red Cross’s success with mobile donations and how other non-profits are engaging donors and non-donors through mobile apps:
Fundraising Via Mobile Devices
The bulk of mobile donations are micro donations of usually $5 to $10 — typically from SMS. As we can see from the successes of the American Red Cross, donations via SMS can be an easy way to engage new donors in fundraising. In fact, 95 percent of the consumers who texted in to the Haiti campaign were first-time donors to the American Red Cross.
Texting campaigns provide a way to engage and build relationships with new donors. The American Red Cross received donations for its Haiti earthquake relief campaign via SMS from 3 million unique donors, of which 20,000 opted in to receive ongoing email communications from the nonprofit organization.
While opt-in campaigns, triggered by a donations, are an effective way to build relationships with new donors, mobile apps can be much more engaging and intuitive than your standard e-newsletter.
Engaging Donors and Prospective Donors
Smartphone apps deliver news, entertainment and information in creative, innovative ways that could never before be fully realized and nonprofits can utilize their incredible features to engage current donors or prospective donors.
Take example from Capital Area Food Bank in Texas that created the iPheedaNeed app. “We created a simple, fun and engaging iPhone experience that will further our mission, show up-to-date information such as local fundraising events, and fully engage users in real-time,” said Lisa Goddard, CAFB Online Marketing Director.
Or we can look at the American Hiking Society, that leveraged the iPhone’s location-aware features to create an engaging, fun experience for hikers to find explore new trails and go on “adventures.” Both charities use the smartphone features uniquely to create an experience through the brand, which can help create or re-enforce relationships with prospective or existing donors.
Apps are not the only answer to user engagement. In the US there are 5,200 different versions of handsets and operating systems, reports Mobile Marketer, so creating a mobile app for the iPhone could be limiting. This builds the case for optimize websites for mobile devices. The Nature Conservancy, for example, has a very stripped down mobile website that conveys its mission of preserving the environment (through donations and awareness):
SMS is still the dominant channel for mobile donations and websites are one of the primary ways to engage users, but as mobile technology advances, we should expect the two to combine into an app that offers both engagement and donations.
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