Technology rears its head in fundraising in the most unique ways. There have always been tellathons whereby people call in to make a donation so donation by phone is nothing new. The latest innovation however, allows people to make charitable donations via text messages on their cellphone. AT&T has been one of the earliest companies to roll out such a program in support relief of Hurricaie Katrina victims. By dialing a code, persons are able to make a donation of five dollars to the American Red Cross.
Alas this system has come under fire by critics who accuse the phone companies of making a silent buck on each donation because they charge 15 cents for each donation. Since donations are capped at 5 dollars, then for someone to make a 20 dollar donation they must text 5 times and essentially, spend 60 cents. Supporters have argued that the fee is much like paying for the stamp one would have used to mail their donation, so critics should let the matter slide.
The overall idea of making it easier to donate by text messages is fabulous. The current generation is surgically attached to the cellphone, constantly on the go and and honestly, sometimes just too busy to post that donation letter. The option of texting provides them with a quick and easy method of contributing and the payoff is instant because they feel good about themselves the second they press the send button. The five dollar cap is also sensible. It allows persons with small budgets, who may be discouraged from donating because they feel their contributions are too small to make a donation that they can feel solid about.
It does seem rather distasteful somehow, that companies are able to make money from people’s charitable efforts. The argument that likens the 15 cents charge for each donation to the cost of a stamp doesn’t quite fly since one could simply pay a flat fee for a stamp and send in as much money as they feel necessary. 10,000 dollars can be sent for 39 cents through the mail, it would cost 27 dollars to send that much money on via text services. While I doubt that any one person would be sending that many text messages, the point is that the cost of each text message adds up.
Good solutions to this challenge do exist however. One compromise lays in the possibility that companies can charge the 15 cents for the first donation and let all subsequent donations from a particular phone be free. That would allow companies to reap a standard fee to help cover their costs, while donors wont have to be constrained by the cost of each message and phone companies can see less exploitative as a result. Another possibility for companies that wave the subsequent texting fees, is that they may write-off such costs as charitable donations come tax time. It will be interesting to see what emerges from this issue in the future.
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