This month's Webinar on Dec 10

The MobileCause team cordially invites you to the next installment of our ongoing Monthly Webinar Series. This month we will be focusing on Text2Pledge, a unique mobile solution that offers instant fundraising potential coupled with our innovative IVR collection service.

Join us as we share experience, strength and knowledge regarding this easy-to-use service can mean serious dollars for your cause.

The MobileCause team will present useful tips and strategy on how to use this revolutionary tool, as well as all of the components that make text2pledge a dynamic and viable fundraising option.

We will also hear from guest speaker Nicole Eley from Africare who will present her organizations success using text2pledge.

We will conclude with a Question and Answer segment.

Looking forward to seeing everyone there! Register Now.

Ben Stiller launches "original" Text2Give campaign

Ben Stiller tells Lance Armstrong about his "original" idea to start a charity called STILLERSTRONG in order to help the community of Ceverine, Haiti and build a new school there.

Stiller's campaign is not without detractors...and pending lawsuits. Most notable by Lance Armstrong himself who hastily video taped a response to StillerStrong in an emergency Armstrong Foundation board meeting this week. We'll see who's tongue in cheek is STRONGER.

Stiller teamed up with MobileCause partner CauseCast to create this real mobile giving campaign.

Video: Sex and the City Star Kim Cattrall Supports the Eleven Eleven Campaign

The Eleven Eleven Campaign -- a two year effort asking 11 million Americans to contribute at least $11 in support of Veterans service organizations and charities. The campaign culminates on Veterans Day, 2011: 11/11/11.

Blog by Kim Cattrall:
"Once the parades have passed and our wars have faded from the news, how we treat our returning soldiers and their families is the measure of our country's character.

Unfortunately, Veterans Day -- which began more than half a century ago as a profound national holiday -- has now become little more than a day for people to skip work or a chance for shoppers to find a good sale.

We should do better than that. And beginning today, we can." read more

Kelly Ripa Launches Text-A-Thon Campaign with MobileCause to benefit Ovarian Cancer Research

During September, Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, you can help us raise funds and awareness to support the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. Donate $5 now to help fund research to find a cure.

Plus, every day you log on to Kelly Confidential, you'll be entered for a chance to win a front load washer and dryer in Turquoise Sky, the color inspired by the teal ribbon of ovarian cancer awareness.

MobileCause provided the Text2Give solution that allows donations to be made through a caller's mobile phone.

The #1 Charity to follow on Twitter is...

Note: We just added a cool new app called Apture. Try clicking on the links in this article...it brings up info and videos without leaving the page.

According to Paste Magazine Twitter offers one of the best ways to connect with charities and Charity: Water does it better than anyone. We're thrilled to have entered into a new partnership with Charity: Water to enable anyone with a phone to donate by simply sending a one word text message. We'll let you know as soon as the campaign kicks in. In the meantime, follow our friends on Twitter (you could be follower #565,607). By the way, have you seen Jennifer Connelly in this amazing video promo?





In the same article, we noticed another one of our clients made #6 in the Best Charities on Twitter list. Our friends at Invisible Children have done an amazing job of utilizing social media to spread the word about the atrocities in Uganda and the children who are forced to be soldiers in Joseph Kony's army. Show your support for them by texting RESCUE to 20222 to donate $5. This is a brand new campaign (Verizon customers may have to wait a week or two more before it is active). Remember, your tax-deductible donation will show up on your phone bill. Follow Invisible Children on Twitter.

By the way, are you following MobileCause on Twitter?

Do you know of a great cause that could use some help connecting with new audiences and donors via mobile? Let us know...

When times are tough, the tough throw a free music festival. For 35,000 people.

Let Free Ring! Virgin Mobile USA Announces 2009 "FreeFest" to Give Back in Bad Economy

Weezer, Blink-182, Franz Ferdinand, and Public Enemy Plus More Than a Dozen Others Scheduled to Perform August 30, 2009

Speculation and predictions that have filled blogs and discussion boards can be put to rest. The Virgin Mobile Festival is returning, but with a catch. Admission will be free.

Virgin Mobile USA, creator of one of the largest and most critically acclaimed music festivals in the U.S., announced today that it would host the 2009 Virgin Mobile FreeFest on Sunday, August 30, at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD., with admission free of charge. All tickets will be given away, and previous Virgin Mobile Festival ticket buyers and Virgin Mobile customers will have the first crack at securing the 35,000 tickets.

"In a time of economic challenges and daily sacrifices, we wanted to throw a fantastic party so people could let loose and have a great time -- on us," said Sir Richard Branson, Founder and President, Virgin Group. "Virgin Mobile FreeFest offers music fans a brilliant day of fun and music and a chance for them to give back to those even less fortunate."

To respond to the sharp decrease in national social giving, Virgin Mobile FreeFest will also host a special VIP seating area for those who donate their time to community service at designated homeless youth shelters around the country. Virgin Mobile is also encouraging people, regardless of wireless carrier, to text "FREEFEST" to 20222, with a $5 donation which will go to select youth homeless centers around the country.In parntership with MobileCause.

http://twurl.nl/fc563s

Giving USA Report for 2008 and Online Fundraising Estimates

The GivingUSA Foundation has released its Giving USA 2009: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2008. The report shows the first decline in giving to US charities in current dollars since 1987. Blackbaud also analyzed the data, along with other information, to estimate the growth of online fundraising by US-based nonprofits.

2008 Total Giving Estimates
Giving USA estimates that $307.65 billion was given in 2008, exceeding $300 billion for the second year in a row. The 2007 estimate was revised to $314.07 billion. The change from 2007-2008 is a decrease of 2% or -5.7% adjusted for inflation.

Although this 2008 figure is the first decline in giving in current dollars since 1987, giving still represented 2.2% of GDP. These donations were primarily from:

• Individuals — $229.28 billion, down 2.7% (-6.3% inflation-adjusted)
  
• Foundations — $41.21 billion, up 3% (-0.8% inflation-adjusted)
  
• Charitable bequests — $22.66 billion, down 2.8% (-6.4% inflation-adjusted)
  
• Corporate giving — $14.5 billion, down 4.5% (-8.0% inflation-adjusted)

Where Donors Gave in 2008
Only religious, public-society benefit, and international affairs showed positive changes in contribution totals. The biggest percentage drops were felt by grant-making foundations and human services organizations. Full Article

MobileCause Partners with Mega Church and 3 Conferences in 1 Week.

MobileCause is proud to participate this month in one of the largest Pastors Conferences in the country. We'll be offering our popular Text2Screen platform to enable audiences to connect via mobile and participate with on screen polls and never-seen-before Twitter integration.

Here's some info about the conference:

Ascent is an experience to network pastors to pursue health together.

New Life Church has persevered in tough days but we are gaining in strength because of them. We’re in pursuit of health. We want to invite other pastors to join in the pursuit with us.

Ascent begins Monday night June 22 with Brady Boyd, Senior Pastor of New Life Church and concludes June 24 with a worship night with Chris Tomlin. Bill Hybels will be a guest speaker, along with communicators from New Life Church including David Perkins, Ross Parsley and Phil McCallum.

For maximum impact, Ascent for pastors runs concurrently with Enter conference for worship teams. The Enter will feature Ross Parsley and New Life Worship. The bonding in staff ministry teams will be extraordinary.

Immediately after Ascent for pastors, follows the Desperation conference for students. For more information on Enter and Desperation visit www.NewLifeConferences.com.

NASCAR champ Jeff Gordon announces a new MobileCause text donation campaign to honor Heroes.

New MobileCause donation campaign with Jeff Gordon. You can help by texting the word HERO to 20222 with your mobile phone to donate $5.

As part of its law enforcement appreciation day, Dover International Speedway is teaming up with the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund and MobileCause to raise awareness of the service and sacrifice of our nations law enforcement officers and raise money for the NLEOMF. During the race, driver Jeff Gordon will honor Americas law enforcement heroes by showing his support for the National Law Enforcement Museum. The TV panel on his No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet will carry a banner featuring the Museums website, PoliceMuseum.org.

$450,000 raised in one night thru Text Donations

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Alicia Keys wants $5 from every "American Idol" fan.

In one night, the amount raised via text donations eclipsed the total money raised in all of 2008. And not a single check was written or credit card was used!

The Grammy-winning singer appeared on the American Idol show last Wednesday to urge viewers to support the Text ALIVE Challenge, which aims to bring medicine and medical care to children and families with HIV/AIDS in Africa and India.

Keys asked fans to text the word "alive" to donate $5 to Keep a Child Alive, the charity she co-founded and for which she serves as global ambassador. She also introduced a beneficiary of the charity, 15-year-old Rwandan rapper Noah, who performed on the show.

If you know of a great cause, let us know! We love to set up a mobile giving campaigns for worthy causes.

MobileCause at Biola Media Conference at CBS Studios

Much better videos with way more important people found here

Steve Shepherd: Mobile Cause from CJ Casciotta on Vimeo.

Invisible Children Rescue Event this weekend draws huge crowds around the world.

Have you been Rescued? Invisible Children Night of Rescue event in 100 cities around the world.

Sample widget from Earth Day Event

Over 2,000 responses to mobile polls at Earth Day in DC. Click on it to see the cool formatting options. There are also our Web-based versions (no mobile phone necessary) on the Earth Day site

Provided by MobileCause, the mobile fundraising specialists

MobileCause and Earth Day in DC this weekend!

While 50,000 people enjoy the 5 hour event of concerts and presentations tomorrow, I'll be stuck in a trailer operating our text2screen services for the Jumbo-trons and the three web site that will be live streaming the event from the National Mall in Washington DC.

We'll be doing 20 polls throughout the day. I'd invite you all to participate, but quite frankly, we don't need to max our servers any more than necessary. To do the web polls, go to the EartDay site and click below our little widget. http://earthday.net/

Additionally, they (Earthday Network) decided last minute that they needed to offer a text petition for the Waxman-Markey Bill. So, superman MobileCause Operations Director, George Morales set up two keywords and shortcodes in speedy time!
Join the Green Generation by texting GREENGEN to 27138
and texting EARTH to 27138.
I'll keep you posted on more to come!

Estimated $5 Million Raised via Text Donations this Year

Why ask potential donors to pull out their checkbook or credit card when they are inclined to give?

As I mentioned in a blog post months ago, Micro-Giving will be the hottest fundraising trend of 2009. According to an article today, VeriSign and the Mobile Giving Foundation expect that more than $5 million will be raised this year via mobile charitable giving.

Text donations (MobileCause is one of the few ASPs provisioned thru all major carriers) take a matter of seconds for web-savvy Gen-Y-ers and the charge shows up on their phone bill.

As MobileCause has been doing for the past 3 years with our Text2Broadcast platform, more nonprofits will also encourage donors to opt into mobile programs to receive alerts, updates and news of events through SMS messages. Personalized messages will also improve the relationship between nonprofit and donor, especially in these hard economic times when charities normally struggle for funds and attention.

Read more about this and other mobile trends in today's article on Mobile Marketing.

75% of the World’s Messages Sent by Mobile

from eMarketer Daily

Worldwide communication in the future will be done through mobile devices.

According to TNS Global, 74% of the world’s digital messages were sent through a mobile device in January 2009, a 15% increase over the previous year.

In emerging markets, the trend is even more dramatic; nine out of 10 messages are sent via mobile.

Some of the growth can be attributed to mobile instant messaging. Thirteen percent of all mobile subscribers used the feature, but 41% of smartphone users did so.

Other increases in mobile usage can be attributed to the abandonment of fixed-line telephones.

“As mobile devices slowly take away usage share from fixed services in developed markets, in emerging markets consumers are more likely to by-pass fixed communications altogether and go straight to mobiles,” said Sam Curtis of TNS.

As for developed countries, the PC e-mail remains the most popular message method, but its use is waning.

In Japan, 40 out of 100 e-mails sent are from a mobile device. In North America, 69% of those using e-mail on their mobile phone use it daily, high compared with 43% worldwide.

full article

Biola Media Conference at CBS Studios April 25

Biola Media Conference 2009 from BiolaMedia on Vimeo.

MobileCause is proud to be a sponsor of the 2009 Biola Media Conference. We'll be offering Text2ScreenLive and other mobile services.

For 14 years, the Biola Media Conference has changed the way people of faith interact with the entertainment and media industries.
It’s become the largest conference in the world for Christians working in Hollywood, and its impact is being felt globally.

Held on the CBS Studios lot in Hollywood, it creates the perfect environment to learn and interact with today’s leaders of the film, television, and digital media industries.

Our theme, “CLOSING THE DEAL,” will focus on how to get your project produced!
Workshops will feature the art of pitching, knowing what projects Hollywood is looking for, discovering niche projects, no budget filmmaking, the legal aspects of deal-making, how power is used in Hollywood, living out your faith, and more!

Join the BiolaMedia Facebook group

Radio's biggest potential lies in building a conversation with audience via mobile

From Mobile Marketing Watch.
With advertising spending drastically spiraling downward across most sectors of print and television media, it is no surprise that the anticipated 40 percent increase in mobile marketing budgets for this year could give a huge boost to radio broadcasting,

According to a group of “mobile marketing professionals” at the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) conference, the mobile segment will attract more than six billion in ad revenues by 2012.

If the mobile marketing geniuses are correct, radio’s biggest potential lies in trying to “stop selling only 30 or 60 second spots and to begin creating a conversation between the station and/or deejay and the audience.”

According to Katz360 President Brian Benedik, “There are 145 million mobile media consumers in the U.S. today, defined as anyone who uses a cell phone for text messaging, downloading content or accessing the Internet. Hence, advertiser appetites for mobile are growing as the market grows. Seventy-six percent of listeners use text messaging, and 66 percent want to text with your radio station.”

Last week, the Nielsen Company reported that advertising in the U.S. in 2008 was down 2.6 percent compared to 2007.

Ten Reasons Mobile Giving will be the Bright Spot in Fundraising for 2009...

This post is a response to a commentary made by a traditional fundraising consultancy.

"One major question we continue to ask ourselves is what is the value of a $5 text donation? Our traditional fundraising research shows us that donors who give low dollar amounts (such as $5), have a commensurately low lifetime donor value. Often, we’ve found that the cost to cultivate (i.e. mail, email, call, etc.) these donors exceeds the donation income they provide. In other words, we end up LOSING money in cultivating donors who give very small amounts."

First of all, I'm glad they're bringing attention to micro-giving. We believe (along with Forrester Research, Mobile Marketer, and others) that micro-giving will be one of the trends to watch in 2009 and following. They are correct that in previous "traditional research," small one-time donors may have a lower lifetime value, but these studies have not accounted for the new developments in text donations.

Here are 10 reasons why Text Donations will be the be the trend to watch and why every Cause should consider adding Mobile to their Donor Engagement tool belt.

1. Turns a mobile phone user into a donor in less than a minute (no credit card, web access, phone operators necessary!)
2. Donation is tax-deductible and shows up on the caller’s phone bill.
3. Engages the donor at the closest point of emotional engagement. (we carry our phones at all times!)
4. Caller can text-donate up to 5 times per month (5x per billing cycle)
   
5. $10 donations are now possible (as of March 2009)
6. Recurring donations will be available soon. That means sending a one-word text message instantly turns a caller into a $120/year donor! Wow.
7. The Call-to-Action couldn’t be easier to remember–across all types of media channels. Pick up your mobile phone and try this sample: text GIVE to 27138. (no donation will be transacted. It is a sample to show how easy it is)
   
8. Used in conjunction with other mobile engagement tools (like text2broadcast and text2screen), organizations can build consistent and lasting relationships with donors.
9. As of 2008, all major carriers have waived 100% of their fees for approved 501c-3 orgs who partner with a qualified service provider like MobileCause. (Elsewhere in the world, the carriers still charge up to 50%)
   
10. Response rates have shown to be 10%-40% compared to 1% - 3% for direct mail and other types of donor acquisition methods.

—-
Things are moving extremely fast with Mobile Technology and we are thrilled to partner with the Mobile Giving Foundation to help organizations like Open Doors, Focus on the Family, Invisible Children, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Sparrow Clubs and so many others fulfill their mission in effective new ways.

Follow us on Twitter and let us know how we can help you Mobilize your Cause.

75,000 expected at national marriage simulcast event on Feb 28

MobileCause is offering a unique service for a live national event. In addition to offering the ability to donate to a cause simply by sending a one-word text message (a $5 or $10 donation shows up on your phone bill), MobileCause's Text2ScreenLive service allows attendees at the live event to text in questions from anywhere in the country.

The Focus on Marriage Simulcast Conference is Saturday, Feb. 28, 2009

The conference is from 7:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. MT and already has more than 70,000 people registered through venues across the U.S.

The live site is at Focus on the Family and at Woodmen Valley in Colorado Springs, CO and features popular speakers:

Beth Moore
Dr. Del Tackett
Dr. Gary Smalley
Dr. John Trent

If you have an event coming up or would like to do Text2Screen for your church or classroom, let us know!

Text2Screen is a hit at live national webcast

MobileCause offered a unique audience interaction tool for the Youth Transition Network (YTN) live national webcast called the LiveAbove Conference. The web-based Text2Screen service allowed attendees from all over the country to text in messages and answers to polls. The results were displayed in real time on their web site and during the live web cast.

YTN launched the one-day national preparation and transition event (called LiveAbove) to help students look into the future at the changes, challenges and opportunities they have to connect with a new Christian community wherever they're headed to after high school graduation.

The Youth Transition Network is a coalition of over 50 national ministries that have come together to prepare, motivate and transition high school seniors who are entering college.

Using the Power of Stories...and Mobile to Change Lives

We're proud to announce that the organization, Invisible Children is our newest client/partner at MobileCause.

MobileCause will be providing Text2Screen services at events throughout the country as well as the ability to donate to the cause by simply sending in a one-word text message.

About Invisible Children:
Motivated by the unseen war in Northern Uganda, Invisible Children was created by three young filmmakers with a singular mission:
To use the power of stories to change lives around the world.
read more

Every Non-profit should have mobile Tools

excerpted from Mickey Alam Khan's post today

Average individual donations are falling to below the $10-level, especially when large nonprofits such as the American Red Cross suck up all the household charity budgets during hurricanes and large-scale calamities.

So it is critical for smaller nonprofits, and even the bigger charities such as the Red Cross or The Salvation Army, to raise donations by text to rapidly respond to emergencies.

The Red Cross, for example, has successfully worked with the wireless carriers to encourage $5 donations for its disaster relief fund. The organization raised more than $200,000 in its most recent September through December appeal.

Subscribers of participating wireless carriers can donate $5 up to five times per month by texting the keyword GIVE to 2HELP (24357).

Charges for these donations will appear on the subscriber’s mobile phone bill each month. They can also be debited from prepaid account balances for those mobile consumers without a contract.

Standard text messaging rates may apply to those texted donations.

Other charities can follow the Red Cross’ example. Publicize the short code on the direct mail, email and Web sites. Encourage donors to sign up with the mobile program. Strike a similar billing relationship as the Red Cross did with the carriers and also work with an SMS aggregator.

Building a mobile database not only will save smaller charities in these hard-pressed times, but will also result in repeat donations.

Mobile also cuts creative, printing and postage costs out of a charity’s operations. Thus, a larger percentage of the donations can go to the actual cause for which the funds are raised.

Check out this SlideShare Presentation of MobileCause Services

http://tinyurl.com/8cg7ja

40% of Non-Profits Say They are Worse Off than Last Year

MobileCause client, The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) wanted to find out how the tough economic times are impacting charitable giving and organizations in general, so they put together an informal survey of nonprofit organizations through their non-profit arm (www.nonprofitfederation.org). Below are the results of the survey which give a snapshot of the nonprofit fundraising industry as of October 2008.

How are your response rates now compared to the same period last year?
Worse [63.0%]
Same [24.1%]
Better [13.0%]

What are you seeing with regards to individual donations compared to the same period last year, please select one:
Smaller gifts, fewer individual donors [40.7%]
Larger gifts, fewer individual donors [33.3%]
Smaller gifts, more individual donors [13.9%]
Larger gifts, more individual donors [8.3%]
User Provided No Response [3.7%]

Are you planning to change your marketing strategy because of the economy?
Yes [65.7%]
No [31.5%]
No Response [2.8%]

Is your organization making any changes due to the economy such as (select all that apply):
No Response [31.5%]
Other - please comment below* [21.3%]
Hiring freeze [18.5%]
Reduction in marketing budget [13.0%]
Reduction in staff [8.3%]
Reduction in programming [6.5%]
Change in mission [0.9%]

Are you planning to use newer marketing techniques in the near future? (Web 2.0, blogs, social marketing, mobile marketing)
Yes [67.6%]
No [22.2%]
No Response [10.2%]

Overall, how is your organization doing financially now compared to last year?
About the same [40.7%]
Worse [38.9%]
Better [19.4%]
No Response [0.9%]

Mobile phone adoption is grow­ing in spite of the economy

There were more than 267 mil­lion mobile phone users in the US for the third quarter of 2008 − a 6% increase over the fourth quarter of 2007, which saw 251 million users, according to the Mobile Advertis­ing Report published by Limbo and GFK/NOP Research.

As a result, mobile broadband is transitioning into a mainstream service, according to a new report from international research firm Parks Associates.

Mobile Broadband: Beyond the Cell Phone predicts that the num­ber of US mobile broadband users will increase by more than 200% by 2013. The report also expects more than 60 million smartphones to be sold in 2013. read more

Advertisers and Charities are "All Thumbs" in 2009

According to Nielsen Mobile, we know the typical U.S. mobile subscriber sends and receives more SMS text messages than telephone calls. Be honest. Do you know anyone (with a pulse) who doesn't have a mobile phone? They may not all be "textperts" but we all know the audience is huge and growing rapidly (roughly 500% increase in two years).

The big advertisers are paying attention: Coke engaged over 1 million mobile customers in Q3 of 2008 for the My Coke Rewards program.

Politicians are listening: Obama revealed his pick for running mate via SMS (text message) to millions of anxious mobile subscribers.

Hotels are getting heads in beds: Marriott reported more than $1.25 million in gross revenue in the first 100 days since the hotel chain introduced direct mobile Web bookings.

Restaurants are putting mobile where the mouth is: Papa Johns Pizza reported $1million in revenue from mobile phone pizza orders in just 6 months.

Charities, however, may be the biggest winners: According to 2009 forecasts, charities will benefit from micro giving. Donors who normally write checks or call in with a credit card can now text in a donation and leave their wallet and checkbooks alone. 2008 marked the first year a non-profit organization could receive a donation via text message without the carriers taking a cut. The result? Donations made via mobile phones this first year surpassed all donations made online in its first year (1997). Annual online donations have grown to a whopping $10 billion for 2007, but you can expect exponential increases for mobile giving as well.

According to Nic Covey, Chicago-based director of insights for Nielsen, “The text-message audience is there, it’s now up to marketers to create a reason that consumers would want to relate to them through such a personal and immediate medium."

In addition to the core financial needs facing non-profit organizations, Causes have struggled with the perception that they are simply advertisers trying to sell us something. The audience is there. The means to communicate are in place. Now it simply comes down to the Message.

This is what has us here at MobileCause so excited. It's the ability for causes to reach a large audience with a convenient, timely message and allow them to interact and give wherever they are.

What will that Message be? We'll keep you posted.

The audience is all ears.
...and all thumbs.