Mobile Technology and Charitable Giving
From my other website at Http://MyLifeAudio.Com
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Research from Pew on charitable giving suggests that people are ready and willing to use their socially connected tools to give to charities, especially during emergencies.
As Americans become increasingly socially connected (two-thirds are involved in social networks) and with the percentage of smart phone use exceeding 50 percent, a platform of charitable giving via social networks, smart phones and tablets will take on greater importance.
But Pew found few differences between the tech oriented givers and the rest of the population. Are we taking full advantage of new communication tools?
Audio and video:
The question is the message. If we make an appeal for charitable giving, what form will it take? If it’s to be truly meaningful, we should consider incorporating short video and audio messages appropriate for mobile devices that both inform and humanize the issue.
People buy from people, not businesses. It’s the same with charities.
The appeal needs to be interesting, sincere and authentic and have a call for action that people can easily accomplish like sending a pledge through a text message. Compelling video and audio messages formatted for mobile can accomplish that purpose effectively and inexpensively.
Pew research:
The research below from Pew Internet is based on charitable giving during emergencies. Charitable donations from mobile phones have grown more common in recent years and 9% have used text messaging to send a charitable donation from their mobile phone.
Pew based its findings on giving during disasters in Haiti. Pew found few differences between the tech oriented givers and the rest of the population. However, these donors are different when it comes to their technology habits, and are significantly more likely than US adults as a whole to:
- Own an e-reader (24% do so, compared with 9% of all US adults), laptop computer (82% vs. 57%) or tablet computer (23% vs. 10%).
- Use Twitter (23% of the Haiti donors we surveyed who go online are Twitter users, compared with 12% of all online adults) or social networking sites (83% vs. 64%).
- Use their phones for activities such as accessing the internet (74% do so, compared with 44% of all adult cell owners), taking pictures (96% vs. 73%), recording video (67% vs. 34%) or using email (70% vs. 38%).
This is significant. As groups try to raise money for a wide variety of causes, there now seems to be a younger more technologically connected group who are willing to respond immediately to a cause and give.
Best, Len.
Source: http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/MobileGiving/Key-Findings.aspx
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