Report On Mobile Giving
Convio, Edge Research, and Sea Change Strategies have prepared this report on mobile giving, probing specifically into the mobile giving generated by the Haiti earthquake. The data reflects a survey of 1500 members of an online panel, screened as current charitable donors.
The report notes that up to 12 January 2010 about $1 million had been donated to various causes and charities via mobile text. Then in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, this amount soared close to $50 million, with gifts limited to the $5-$10 range. From that, the report estimates that in the neighborhood of 6.5 million gifts were made.
Most striking, but not surprising, is the demographic profile of this mobile text giving …
17% of Gen Y, 14% of Gen X, 3% of Boomers and 3% of Matures made gifts via mobile text.
It occurs to me that mobile text provides a sort of "training wheels" serving to help younger individuals get comfortable with donating.
The gift amounts are readily affordable, the "need" (in the case of a natural disaster) requires no explanation, the situation is ripe for an emotional impulse response abetted by a convenient, at-hand technology.
It might not be easy to track down these mobile donors and to coax follow-on gifts from them … though that effort should certainly be made.
But nevertheless, if mobile text giving is habit forming (not that anyone wishes for disasters), then perhaps it will help younger donors progress over time to more substantial and considered forms of donating.
Once you learn to ride a bike …
Tom
One response to “Report On Mobile Giving”
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