TEXT DONATIONS FOR CANADA A BIG SUCCESS (4)
I am far too grounded in the 20th century,....it was far easier to walk down to the local chapter of the Red Cross and make a donation,...
bump
Aye,....I wish there was more I could do,....
More Threads
Iran- Israel war
Thoughts on Daylight Savings
One more reason to vote Democrat....Arizona Supreme Court
biggest lie
who shaped your life?
Trump Elementary
One week of the most outrageous GOP leadership!
Should CS charge EVERYone a fee to keep fake profiles and scammers out?
See It All The Time
Manifesting
More Threads
Report threads that break rules, are offensive, or contain fighting. Staff may not be aware of the forum abuse, and cannot do anything about it unless you tell us about it. click to report forum abuse »
If one of the comments is offensive, please report the comment instead (there is a link in each comment to report it).
If one of the comments is offensive, please report the comment instead (there is a link in each comment to report it).
Stats for this Thread
531 Views
3 Comments
Created: Jan 2010
Last Viewed: Apr 10
Last Commented: Jan 2010
0 Likes
Related Forums
- Iran- Israel war
- Thoughts on Daylight Savings
- One more reason to vote Democrat....Arizona Supreme Court
- biggest lie
- who shaped your life?
- Trump Elementary
- One week of the most outrageous GOP leadership!
- Should CS charge EVERYone a fee to keep fake profiles and scammers out?
- See It All The Time
- Manifesting
The Salvation Army Canada has raised $120,000 via mobile texts since Thursday, accounting for nearly 10 per cent of the charity's total amount raised for its Haiti campaign since last Tuesday's devastating earthquake, said national spokesman Andrew Burditt.
Plan Canada has raised about $3,000 via text messaging, while World Vision Canada has raised $1,600, since launching the service on the weekend.
"It's been a watershed moment in fundraising," said T.J. Grant, the youth marketing manager for World Vision Canada.
"The immediacy of mobile giving [is because] people can just pull out their cellphone," said Grant, contrasting it with other donation methods that may involve more steps. With those, he said, "every extra step, there's an opportunity to change your mind [and not donate.]"
"This is just literally in its infancy in Canada," said Plan Canada spokesman Steven Theobald. "For us, it's a great way to engage younger people. They get intimidated by seeing ads in newspapers asking you to check off boxes to donate $100."
With so many Canadians using cellphones to make donations, the system has bogged down, bringing about some unexpected problems. Chiefly, some people are forgetting to complete the second part of the mobile donation process, said the Salvation Army's Burditt.
A mobile donation takes two steps. The customer texts in the code to make a donation. They then receive a return text message asking them to confirm their donation. They must reply to the message to confirm the donation.
Normally, the confirmation message comes within seconds of the initial text but these days it's taking so long that people are closing their cellphones and forgetting about the confirmation.
"The system is a little slow. They just have to wait for that text and reply, 'Yes,'" said Burditt. He couldn't say exactly how many mobile donations are incomplete, just that the charity can see many texts have been initiated but not finished.
Burditt called the issue a "good problem," since it shows "there are so many people trying to donate."
Through a system set up by the Mobile Giving Foundation — which was created by Canada's largest wireless companies in September — cellphone users can send donations of $5 to:
Salvation Army Canada by texting the word "Haiti" to 45678.
Plan Canada by texting "Haiti" to 30333.
World Vision by texting the word "world" to 45678.
Donations may be delayed by up to 30 days
"Charities are going to need that money and it doesn't matter whether [the delay] is 30 days or 60 days because it's going to be years that these charities are going to be depending on the generosity of Canadians," said Choma.
"I don't want anyone to think that, 'well, my money's not going to get there tomorrow so it's not going to do any good.' That simply is not true."
Choma suspects many of the texted donations would likely never have been sent but for the fact that people could do it so easily.
The Salvation Army said the average mobile donation is $5.
On the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported some texted donations in the U.S. may not reach charities for up to three months because many wireless firms won't advance the money until the bill has been paid.
In Canada, the situation is a little different, said Choma.
Texted donations are not sent on an individual basis once they've been paid for. Instead, texted donations are remitted to the charity once a month en mass through the Mobile Giving Foundation.