SMS Fundraising Campaign for Breast Cancer

Given the visible success of the Haiti text to give campaigns, SMS is bound to become one of the tools in the an organization's fundraising bag if it isn't already.

Today I heard about Drew Olanoff's latest fundraising campaign, a text to give strategy on behalf of Boarding for Breast Cancer.  Here's how it works:

Every time someone texts “tp4bc” to 60611, the textPlus mobile address, textPlus will donate $1 to Boarding for Breast Cancer, a non-profit, youth-focused education, awareness, and fundraising foundation whose mission is to increase awareness about breast cancer, the importance of early detection and the value of an active lifestyle. 

textPlus, a mobile app, offers users free texting with group text capability.  What's cool is that Drew’s employer GOGII is the mobile app developers behind textPlus a free group texting application available on the iphone and android platforms. 

This is not the first time Drew Olanoff has taken to the social web to fundraise for cancer.  Last May after Drew Olanoff was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, he launched a charity called blamedrewscancer.com which donated $1 dollar to the LIVESTRONG foundation for every person that followed @DrewFromTV, the twitter handle of comedian Drew Carey.  The charity has raised $15,000 dollars to date and is a great example of personal fundraising that leverages the power of social media.

If you are looking for information about to design and implement an effective sms campaign, Allyson Kapin has a post that includes tips, as well as a description of some of the challenges.  Her tips include:

If your nonprofit is thinking of launching a mobile fundraising campaign, it’s critical that you develop a multi-channel marketing and outreach plan to spread the word and maximize donations. For example:

• Start with emailing your online activists and donors and place your shortcode and keyword front and center. Include a “Forward to a Friend” link and a “Share This” app on the landing page so people can promote it to social networks too. Reinforce this in a follow up thank you email as well.

• Leverage social networks. Tweet the “text to donate” campaign. Ask followers to pass it on. Post it to your Facebook Fanpage and any other social networks your organization is active on. Report back on key milestones. The American Red Cross has done a terrific job in the last 72 hours of reporting how much money they are raising via mobile, the work they are doing on the ground, etc.

• Paid advertising such as banner ads, keywords and text ads are excellent and fast ways to promote your campaign to millions of people and grow your list at the same time.

• Follow up with your donors. Tell them about the progress you have made towards reaching your fundraising goals. Explain how their money is being spent. Share some personal stories by people who have been impacted by their donations.

 

Update: More from Heather Mansfield on mobile marketing best practices here and some

Has your organization incorporated text to give in it is fundraising bag of tricks? What have you learned about implementing these campaigns?  What are the best specific blog posts and resources out there on SMS fundraising?

Resources:

Fundraising with Social Media Reaching a Tipping Point by Allison Fine
Reflections on SMS Fundraising Campaigns by Allison Fine
Few Text Donors Opt In To Receive Updates by Chronicle

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=501203508]

Thank you so much for the support Beth. I want to stretch all of the boundaries of technology and creativity on ways to raise awareness and raise money.

[Allison Fine]

I blogged about fundraising by text yesterday and Gavin Clabaugh commented that SMS is not social media but just a new billing system for fundraising.

I've always thought of text as social media, it's cheap, mobile, easy-to-use enables people to communicate and organize. However, it doesn't allow crowds to talk to one another.

What do you think - text social media or telephony?

[Casey Brennan]

Hi Beth-

Thanks for this post - great to see what other SMS success stories are out there!

Following the release of our research, the 2009 Cone Consumer New Media Study, we posted some tips on our blog about how to engage consumers effectively online:
http://www.coneinc.com/warming-up-to-causes-online

Hope you find this useful!

Casey Brennan
Insights Associate
Cone

[ThinkCancer!]

One of the goods side of technology is it make us easy, in everything, including for the goodness. Thanks for sharing Beth :)

[Mazarine Treyz]

When I was working with one understaffed nonprofit, it was hard to see how we could integrate SMS giving into our fundraising strategy. With one person doing e-newsletters, banners, events every month, two major fundraisers on top of that, twitter and facebook and linkedin community management, grantwriting, grant research, and all print marketing for the nonprofit, SMS seemed like a faroff dream.

Now that I'm not working with that nonprofit anymore, it's exciting to see where the world of SMS fundraising is going, and great to hear that it doesn't take a lot of setup, and that there are places that allow donors to just get friends to text a number to get an organization to donate to a cause.

Allison, about what you wrote, I do think that SMS is social media, not a new billing system, because it uses mobile platforms that fundraisers haven't really been able to touch before. It allows a viral effect of person to person text-recommendations to go out in a ripple to create tons of donations not under the control of the fundraiser. The possibilities are truly staggering, and I hope that this method of fundraising becomes not just a one-time disaster use, but something that we can incorporate to use in every fundraising plan.

Thank you so much for posting this Beth!

PS. I welcome your thoughts and ideas about fundraising at http://wildwomanfundraising.com

[Maria]

We are walking 40 miles for breast cancer in Boston in May and we need your help! My team has raised over $10,000 to date, and our goal is $20,000. Help us make this huge contribution to breast cancer research by making a donation to our cause today! No amount is too big or small!
www.avonwalk.org/goto/mariamontague