Mobile Donations: Raise Money From Text Messages

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 Posted by Tawnya | No Comments »

Haven’t heard of mobile donations? You will. This technology is on the fast track for many nonprofits and political fundraising organizations as a way to access new donors. The value of mobile donations is their immediacy and ease-of-use. Donors simply text a keyword, such as “HOPE,” to a specified “short code” number, such as 12345, and a $5 or $10 donation is automatically charged to their mobile phone bill.

Prior to 2008, mobile donations were stymied due to the high fees charged by the telephone carriers. That changed last year when the Mobile Giving Foundation (MGF), a Washington-based nonprofit, came into the picture. The MGF has been able to broker deals with all the major phone carriers in the US to waive all fees for text message donations, allowing the nonprofits to collect 90 percent of the donation (10 percent goes to the MGF).

More than 150 nonprofits such as United Way, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, UNICEF, and the Red Cross, to name a few, have already jumped on board. Versign and the MGF predict that more than $5 million will be raised this year with mobile giving.

Mobile donations won’t help bring an immediate windfall to your organization. The donation levels are small (the current limit is $10) and nonprofits are limited to 5 text donations per month. But, the technology can serve as a way to open the door to a new demographic that you might not otherwise reach. And, it is especially good for targeting the technology savvy Gen Y and, to a lesser extent, Gen X generations. Check out these stats:

WHY GO MOBILE?

• 270 million mobile subscribers
• In 2008, 3.5 billion text messages (SMS) were sent every day—that averages to about 13 messages per day per American
• In 2008, the mobile industry racked up more than $32 billion in data-service revenue
• 68 percent of people 18-24, 37 percent of people 35-44 and 14 percent of those over 65 use text messaging

(The main target group for mobile donations is really the 18-44 age group.)

The two most important pieces of information you can gather from your donors are: 1) an opt-in email address and 2) an opt-in mobile phone number. With this information, a nonprofit has the ability to go back to its donor base time and again with complementary messages that together strengthen the donation pitch. Mobile technology can help you to get both of these.

Think about this: President Obama successfully used the mobile platform to help get him to the White House. Obama’s people had the insight long ago to realize they could leverage the mobile channel to do much more than just solicit donations. They could also engage supporters, mobilize volunteers and propel voters to the polls. And a recent article in Mobile Market says that by 2012 mobile voting could become a reality. Click here for more.

When you encourage donors to opt–in to your mobile program, you are then able to send alerts, updates and news of events through SMS messages. These personalized messages will improve the relationship between the nonprofits and the donor, and help you to push through the cacophony of marketing messages they’re already receiving to actually get their attention!

There are limitations on who can register with the MGF for mobile giving. You must meet the following requirements:

• US Non-Profit Organization registered as a 501c3 with at least $500,000 in annual revenues
• 501c3 must be in good standing for at least one year
• Patriot Act Compliant
• Must provide Form 990, Letter of Determination (Form 1045), and other documents as required

Mobile marketing, of course, doesn’t end with mobile giving. There are many other options to consider for your mobile campaign, some of which I will talk more about in next week’s post. I’ll list a few companies here, and how they used the mobile platform:

• The Secret: Premium subscription content
• Armani Exchange: Mobile coupons and promotions
• High School Musical 3: Fan engagement
• Shopaholic: Promotion, sponsorship and ticket sales
• Kaiser Permanente: Build awareness during federal open enrollment period
• The Cancer Action Network: Mobile advocacy

The ins and outs of mobile donations can be tricky. You can’t deal directly with the MGF and must work with one of its recommend providers. You should also be considering your larger donor communications strategy and how mobile marketing fits into that, especially as an adjunct to direct mail, events and personal solicitation. PRx has years of experience in philanthropy management and donor outreach.

We in Silicon Valley can run the risk of falling victim to technology, forgetting about the communication basics that make for successful business development. Dare I say it? Sometimes, we rely too much on the interface — our emails, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Blogs — and not enough on personal contact.

That’s why I found my conversation so interesting with Steve Tully, former Chair to the Silicon Valley Capital Club Board of Governors and Founder of Advantage Office Furniture which resells used (Fortune 100) and remanufactured office furniture. Steve is a firm believer in “constant contact” (and I’m not talking about the email service provider).

It’s serving him well. When most businesses are losing clients, Steve’s revenues are actually going up. (And that’s for someone who’s selling office furniture to businesses in a down economy — go figure.) So what’s he doing? Well, I asked.

You mentioned that your business is actually doing well despite the economy. What are the top three things you’re doing that is making it possible for you to increase sales while everyone else is struggling?

1. I daily track people I meet into my contacts file and follow–up with them with an email the same day.
2. I daily place 20 to 25 listings on Craiglist and follow up on reply responses I receive back. (You can replace Craigslist with your own sales channel.)
3. I daily see ten clients face–to–face (eyeball–to–eyeball).

What would you recommend people “change” that would make them more successful with business development?

1. One needs to be totally honest with themselves and the team.
2. Members should share business projects.
3. Keep a 12–hour workday.
4. Divide your workday into four segments — 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

• Three time slots for email communications
• Personal contact and communication with clients three or four times daily
• One daily outside group meeting — other than your business
• Close two deals a day (receive payment) and present two deals per day (viable sales presentations)

Here’s another interesting tidbit about Steve. He’s now in his seventies, but had no problem jumping in when it came to adopting new business channels for his company. He’s got videos on YouTube, is running ads on Craigslist and more. He says that the majority of his sales now come from online channels.

Check out more of Steve’s YouTube videos. It just goes to show that anyone can get started, and you don’t have to be a pro.

Steve Tully
Former Chair, Board of Governors, Silicon Valley Capital Club
Founder, Network Today, Young Executives Club and Kiwanis Executive Club for the Silicon Valley Capital Club
Founder, President and CEO, Advantage Office Furniture, Inc.
www.advantageoffice.net

Mercury News Columnist Sal Pizarro Reveals His Biggest Surprise about the Newspaper Business

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 Posted by Steve Mangold | No Comments »

Sal Pizarro is a columnist for the San Jose Mercury News. Previously a sports writer and editor, he took over Leigh Weimers’ column in late 2005.

PRx: Is your role changing at all with the economic downturn? You write a lot about nonprofits and arts groups, about their events and promotions and about the companies that support them. Is that the mission of your column?

Pizarro: Certainly one of the roles I and my column have, especially in this ever-shrinking economy which has severely impacted newspapers, is that I’m getting more things on my plate. My role has expanded over last few years. We used to have a dedicated philanthropy reporter and there were business reporters who covered corporate philanthropy as part of their beat, whether they were covering Applied Materials, eBay, Apple or any of a lot of companies.

That role has shrunk along with the staff, and more nonprofit stuff has come my way. It’s one of the surprising things about how the column has evolved. We emphasize the good news that our corporate citizens are doing and there’s a lot out there and that balances what we see on the front page and in the business pages.

The column was kind of nebulous when I took over from Leigh. One of the goals was to continue the legacy, to report on community organizations and highlight community names, and while corporate figures were part of it, they were not as big a part because we had other reporters covering them. So if NVIDIA or Applied made grants, that hadn’t been on my radar until now. Now we have a lot of news from the corporate community relations field in the column because no one else is covering it.

PRx: Can you tell if the economic slowdown, the recession, means that corporations are doing more or less?

Pizarro: It’s a little bit of both. One thing I’ve seen is that corporate sponsorships are way down across the board when it comes to events and other campaigns. The economy just isn’t there for them and they’re pulling back, but many of the companies are still continuing their programs. We’re seeing a lot more involvement on the employees’ part, that they’re volunteering more and doing more when their employers are able to do less.

Where it really hurts now is event sponsorships, like the San Jose Jazz festival and other big sponsored events, where they’re looking for sponsors for the bigger levels, the title and presenting sponsorships, and are now getting smaller sponsorships from the same companies. They’re still sponsoring but at lower levels.

PRx: What about the media companies? Have they cut back, too?

Pizarro: Yes, we get that question. When the Merc’s old parent company Knight Ridder went away, that was a big loss to the community in terms of grants and sponsorships. But our sister papers, the community papers, still do a lot of that, and the Merc still acts as a media sponsor for many events and nonprofit promotions, but we’re missing the corporate support Knight Ridder showed, especially as it was headquartered in San Jose. Our new owner, Media News, encourages the newspaper to do a lot, but it doesn’t have the ties Knight Ridder did since it isn’t headquartered here.

PRx: You’ve been a reporter for a long time, belying your youthful good looks. What still surprises you, or is there nothing new in the news business?

Pizarro: The No. 1 thing that surprises me, especially after I started writing this column, is how much volunteering people do in this valley. A lot of it is really invisible, but you have a lot of people who work crazy hours as it is in whatever field they’re in and then put in time at soup kitchens, schools, nonprofit agencies and the like. Nobody gets enough credit for that.

As for the news business itself, we’ve got new surprises all the time, but most of them aren’t good. I am, however, continually surprised by people who don’t realize that most of the news they read on the Internet, whether it’s through Google News or links from a blog they like, originates at a newspaper company. You can endlessly debate the virtues of print vs. the web, but right now, without the print product, the companies that produce that news can’t stay in business and that’s not good for anyone.