City of Hope has added a new giving channel to its fundraising arsenal: mobile giving.
Although the technology has been around for a long time — everyone seems to have a cell phone these days — the ability to donate remotely is fairly new. And now City of Hope has tapped into the trend.
The movement started in 2008, when the Mobile Giving Foundation was established as a clearinghouse and regulatory entity for charitable giving via cell phone. The first mobile giving campaign of its kind, benefiting the United Way, was launched during Super Bowl XLII. Since then, the tool has been adopted by many leading nonprofit organizations, including the American Heart Association, Amnesty International, Entertainment Industry Foundation and UNICEF.
The power of mobile giving is that it allows more than 250 million wireless users in the United States to donate instantly through text messages from their cell phones. Contributors do not need to write a check, provide credit card information or call anyone; they simply text a reply and their donation is automatically added to their monthly cell phone bill. Mobile giving donations are limited to $5.
City of Hope’s mobile giving efforts recently made their debut in the FOX Sports Supports initiative. Donors may send the text GIVEHOPE to 90999 from any cell phone to give to City of Hope throughout the football season (standard text messaging rates may apply). For more information about FOX Sports Supports, visit www.cityofhope.org/FOX.
