Friday, February 15, 2013

Charities must make the most of smartphone and tablet technology

Image courtesy Flickr user jeroenbennink.

Is your organisation making the most of smartphone technology? Photograph: FocusMedia/Alamy

A recent article by Zoe Amar for the Guardian Voluntary Sector Network was a clarion call that chimed with our own mantras about the role technology has to play in growing giving.

We've spent the last decade innovating to help grow generosity and witnessed nothing short of a revolution in the way donors behave. However, if anything, the piece underplays the rate at which mobile is growing as a giving platform. While it's true that many charities are still in the early stages of understanding their impact, giving via mobile platforms is growing at a blistering rate.

The simplest form of mobile donation is text giving, which has been most vividly realised in America, where close to $50m (32m) was raised through texts alone after the devastating Haiti earthquake. Closer to home, text giving is enfranchising many smaller organisations not just charities, but also causes that want to raise money and capitalise on a nation that is increasingly spontaneous. For instance, Acorns Children's Hospice raised 7,500 through JustTextGiving by simply publicising a text code during a football match.

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