Mobile Accord’s mGive Platform Raises More Than $22 Million for Red Cross to Help Earthquake Victims in Haiti

Over 2 million Americans have responded with unprecedented generosity by texting ‘HAITI’ to 90999 in the first five days

DENVER, Jan. 18 /PRNewswire/ — The American public continued to respond generously to the disaster in Haiti by donating funds to support the relief effort using their mobile phones. The Red Cross Haiti mobile giving campaign has raised the largest amount ever for a text message charitable giving program, demonstrating the power and potential of mobile giving.

During peak giving periods, the mGive platform processes more than ten thousand dollars in text donations per minute. The mGive platform, which allows users to easily donate $10 to the Red Cross Haiti relief fund, has been the standard for mobile giving since 2008. Since that time, the mGive platform processed, reported, and audited all mobile donations in the US and is the platform of choice for high-volume campaigns like fundraising for the current crisis in Haiti.

Just hours after the earthquake, Katie Stanton at the U.S. State Department called James Eberhard, Chairman and CEO of Mobile Accord, the parent company for mGive. Eberhard was in Pakistan at the time, working on a mobile community solution. Within hours, the Red Cross, Mobile Accord’s mGive team, and the wireless community had created the capability for donors to text Haiti to 90999.

“mGive helped make technological history by working with the U.S. Department of State to establish a program quickly that has allowed more than 2 million Americans to direct support people in need in Haiti,” said Senior Advisor for Innovation in the Office of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Over 2 million Americans have taken a few moments to text “HAITI” to 90999 since the program was activated. In five days, the program has raised over $22 million dollars. Normally, funds from mobile campaigns are distributed to charitable organizations within 60-90 days as donations are collected through normal billing cycles. Given the urgency of the Haitian disaster, all major wireless carriers will expedite the distribution of funds. The wireless carriers and mGive waived all normal fees so 100 percent of every dollar donated will go to Haitian relief efforts.

“The devastation in Haiti has brought out the very best in people, and we feel it is our duty to do everything we can to help,” said James Eberhard, Chairman and CEO of Mobile Accord. “When we created the mobile giving channel we had always hoped to never have to use it in a situation like this, but in the wake of such a catastrophe, it has empowered all Americans with the ability to quickly respond and make an impact.”

For those who want to donate to the Red Cross effort in Haiti, a simple text message contributes $10 to the relief effort, billed to the donor’s mobile bill.

How to contribute:

• Text the word HAITI to 90999 to give $10.
• When prompted, reply with YES to confirm your one-time gift.
• The $10 one-time donation will appear on your next mobile bill
• Receipts can be printed at mGive.org/receipt

The mGive Foundation is currently working with the wireless carriers to expedite payment to the Red Cross. Jenifer Snyder, Executive Director of the Foundation said, “The wireless carriers are working to ensure that these funds reach the Red Cross as quickly as possible. The donations raised through text messages will have a substantial impact upon the rescue and relief efforts.”

Mobile Accord’s mGive service enables charities to collect donations and manage campaigns via mobile phones. Learn more: www.mGive.com

About mGive and Mobile Accord

Mobile Accord is the innovator and leader in mobile technology for nonprofit organizations, powering mobile donations in the United States. Founded in 2005, Mobile Accord was the first company in the U.S. to offer mobile tools specifically built for nonprofit organizations. Mobile Accord serves more than 200 leading U.S. philanthropic organizations and has raised more 95% of all funds raised via mobile giving. The mGive Foundation is the charitable partner of Mobile Accord.

SOURCE Mobile Accord

RELATED LINKS

http://www.mGive.com

President Obama and Secretary Clinton Broadcast Mobile Video Messages to the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan Powered by Mobile Accord

In his speech on Tuesday, December 1^st, President Obama delivered a speech to the nation on Afghanistan and Pakistan and in his address, he delivered a special message directly to the people of Afghanistan. The U.S. Department of State working with the White House then dubbed this special message into Arabic, Dari, Pashtu, Punjabi and Urdu for distribution on mobile devices.

Secretary Clinton following the President’s speech also created a special message to reach the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan. To distribute her message on mobile devices, this was also dubbed into Arabic, Dari, Pashtu, Punjabi and Urdu.

With Internet penetration relatively low in the region (around 2% for Afghanistan and 11% for Pakistan), the U.S. Department of State sought new ways to use technology to share these messages.  52 percent of the 177 million people in Pakistan and 30 percent of the 28.4 million in Afghanistan have mobile devices, according to the White House.

The mobile videos of President Barack Obama and Secretary Clinton’s messages can be viewed at ourSMSvoice.com

Mobile Accord powers the technology hosting President Obama and Secretary Clinton’s mobile message.  In addition, Mobile Accord powers Humari Awaz (“Our Voice”), Pakistan’s first mobile social network.

Humari Awaz enables Pakistanis to build mobile-based networks around shared interests and themes.  Users can register for keywords to send alerts and subscribe to text message alerts all through the mobile device.  The U.S. State Department is supporting the program and is covering the costs of the first 24 million Humari Awaz messages.

President Obama had this message to deliver to the people of Afghanistan:

The people of Afghanistan have endured violence for decades. They’ve been confronted with occupation — by the Soviet Union, and then by foreign al Qaeda fighters who used Afghan land for their own purposes. So tonight, I want the Afghan people to understand — America seeks an end to this era of war and suffering. We have no interest in occupying your country. We will support efforts by the Afghan government to open the door to those Taliban who abandon violence and respect the human rights of their fellow citizens. And we will seek a partnership with Afghanistan grounded in mutual respect — to isolate those who destroy; to strengthen those who build; to hasten the day when our troops will leave; and to forge a lasting friendship in which America is your partner, and never your patron.

Learn More

• Messages to the People of Afghanistan and Pakistan [Dipnote]
• White House targets Afghan, Pakistan Mobile Users

Secretary Clinton Introduces New Media Communications in Pakistan

-Read the Post

In a post on DIPNOTE, The U.S. Department of State’s Official blog, Ashley Bommer, Special Advisor to Special Representative to Afghanistan & Pakistan Richard Holbrooke gave some great insight into the people of Pakistan and the conflict in the nation.  In the changing face of the nation, she discusses the current needs of the people and what the State Department is doing to help the people and give them hope.

Ms. Bommer recounts an email from The Director of Wireless at the Ministry of Information and Technology, writing, ” Social Connection can transform society and in Pakistan there is immense opportunity for using technology to deploy citizen centric services, that can help bring about socio economic change for the Pakistani people. Active involvement of Pakistani stakeholders both in the public and private sectors will be crucial to achieve optimal results.

The efforts of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are also discussed along with her support of Humari Awaz (“Our Voice”), Pakistan’s first mobile social network.  Clinton says that Humari Awaz is, “a service you can use on your cell phone to distribute news stories, to invite people to an event, to share your thoughts and opinions, to report problems that you see, to call for actions to solve those problems.”

Humari Awaz enables Pakistanis to build mobile-based networks around shared interests and themes.  Users can register for keywords to send alerts and subscribe to text message alerts all through the mobile device.  The U.S. State Department is supporting the program and is covering the costs of the first 24 million Humari Awaz messages.

Read the Entire Post- Secretary Clinton Encourages Use of New Media Communications in Pakistan

- – -

Related Mobile Accord Post: Mobile Accord Launches New Mobile Social Network in Pakistan

Mobile Accord Launches New Mobile Social Network in Pakistan

In a global effort with The U.S. State Department and Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Technology, Mobile Accord today launched Humari Awaz (“Our Voice”)- Pakistan’s first, free mobile social network.

Humari Awaz enables Pakistanis to build mobile-based networks around shared interests and themes.  Users can register for keywords to send alerts and subscribe to text message alerts all through the mobile device.  The U.S. State Department is supporting the program and is covering the costs of the first 24 million Humari Awaz messages.

In addition to linking friends and families, the network will also help a range of other users – from farmers and resellers who want to share market prices, to businesses that wish to communicate with their staff on the road, to news outlets that want to share information with targeted groups.
Humari Awaz participants also have the option to identify themselves or remain anonymous.
- U.S. Department of State press release on Humari Awaz

Mobile Accord is the technology backbone of the network, connecting with all five mobile phone networks enabling over 95 million Pakistanis to use the service.

To learn more about how to use Humari Awaz, SMS “HELP” or “MADAD” to 7111 in Pakistan.

UPDATE: In the first day of service over 20,000 texts were sent using the “Our Voice” platform: 703 user ids were created, 1,360 followers linked up, and 2,363 updates were posted. Over the first weekend, 1,564 keywords were registered, followers reached 7,012, and total SMS sent has reached 232,947.

Text Donations Have Arrived!

Wow! I think I need to take a deep breath, push away from my desk and let this sink in for a moment…

I just finished building the first ever mobile giving campaign in the US! Text FIT to 864833 (UNITED) to donate $5.00 to the United Way Youth Fitness Programs.

It’s always been our mission here at Mobile Accord to make Mobile Giving a reality in America and it looks like all of our hard work over the last 2 ½ years is finally paying off. This is the first time in history that the major US wireless carriers have made a commitment to allow a 100% pass through rate on all monies donated for a non-disaster fundraising campaign. We could not be more optimistic about the possibilities that lie ahead!

Imagine the next time you’re at an event, a concert, a rally or a lecture; when you’ve been moved to make a difference. Now imagine if all you had to do to make that difference was send a text message! Can you imagine if everyone around you did the same thing?

If we started giving this way, we could soon see the day when a need arose and was met; when obstacles appeared and were overcome; when you’re little sister found her altruistic side! WHOA!

A $5 donation, added to your monthly wireless bill, can be made up to 5 times per month and allow us all to take action at the moment we’re called upon. Here’s more about the NFL & United Way’s Text to Give Campaign set to launch Super Bowl Sunday, February 3^rd, 2008!

February 1, 2008 – United Way announced today that Tom Brady of the New England Patriots will appear in a 10 second animated spot to advertise an innovative way for people to support United Way’s youth fitness programs. The ad, which will first be unveiled during the Super Bowl, encourages people to help kids get fit by texting “FIT” to “864833” (“United”). The text message will generate a five dollar donation charged directly to the donor’s cell phone bill.

 

 

I don’t know what else to say. Spread the Message: DON8!

New Digs, New Tools

This space has been lonely for some time. No updates, no news, and, seemingly, no love. It’s been very quiet. There are reasons for this. Some practical, some exciting, some having to do with the Colorado Rockies.

First, the practical. We’ve moved offices. Have you ever noticed that moving is not at all fun and presents a handful of hassles? We have. The good news is that we’re settled and our new space will be great once they’re done with the build-out taking place all around us (did we mention hassles?). Our new address can be found here.

Next, the exciting. We have two brand new tools! The first is called Alert By Mobile which allows a campaign administrator to initiate an SMS blast to an opt-in base right from his or her mobile phone. Many times urgent information needs to be distributed on the spot by somebody who is not in front of a computer. Alert By Mobile takes care of this issue. After all, why shouldn’t the tools for mobile communication be mobile?

We’ve also created a tool called Text2Web. As the name so cleverly implies, Text2Web is a widget that displays people’s text messages on your website in a scrolling fashion. This is great for mobile petitions, messages of support, constituent feedback, etc. We’ve also made Text2Web extremely easy to deploy and manage. Simply copy and paste the Text2Web widget code from our extranet onto your website and – voila – you’re done! Text2Web’s administrative tools allow for message moderation, number blocking, etc.

Give us a call or shoot us a note and we’ll be glad to give you a test drive of these shiny new tools. We’ll also be glad to give you a test drive of our other tools as well, which are equally as shiny.

And last, the Colorado Rockies. Since May 22 they have the best record in the National League and last night clinched their first playoff birth since 1995. We love watching these guys. Go Rockies!

HouseFront and ABC News

Mobile Accord parter HouseFront was recently mentioned in an ABC News piece by Wall Street Journal editor Wendy Bounds. Add this to the long list of press that HouseFront has received.

For those who don’t know, HouseFront allows you to get property information on over 100 million homes in the US delivered to your mobile phone. All you have to do is text the property address to 46873 (HOUSE).

For example, try texting 513 Doheny Rd, Beverly Hills, CA, 90210 to 46873 and see what comes back.

Iron Man, anyone?

ONE Campaign Partners With Mobile Accord

We are very proud to announce that ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History has partnered with Mobile Accord to launch a new suite of advanced member contact solutions designed to connect ONE with its supporters via the mobile phone.

An excerpt from the press release announcing our new partnership:

“The move to make mobile an integral part of our day-to-day outreach efforts aligns perfectly with what makes ONE so effective and different from other organizations.” – Kimberly Cadena, ONE Campaign spokesperson

To kick-off the partnership, we’re helping ONE roll-out several SMS campaigns that will generate new support, educate existing supporters, coordinate volunteers, and designed to seamlessly integrate with their existing member relationship management database. We’re also working on a couple of brand new SMS applications that ONE will be using here in the near future. (Stay tuned…)

Over the past couple of weeks ONE has had a ton of other great things happening as well. For example, ONE co-founder Bono was the first-ever guest editor for Vanity Fair, publishing a special Africa issue of the magazine that hit newsstands yesterday. They also just launched their presidential initiative called ONE Vote ‘08, an “unprecedented, bi-partisan campaign to make global health and extreme poverty foreign policy priorities in the 2008 presidential election”, in which 9,558 ONE members joined a conference call with Senators Bill Frist and Tom Daschle, Ben Affleck and ONE CEO Susan McCue on Monday evening.

The entire Mobile Accord team is thrilled to be working with ONE and its great staff!

Sign The ONE Declaration

 

A New Culture of Philanthropy

Welcome to the Mobile Accord blog! We’ve been in business for a while now and we figured it’s time we join the blogosphere because:

1. We love blogs!
2. We love bloggers!
3. We’ve spent the last two years building a top-notch mobile platform and we want to tell you all about it.
4. We’ve also spent the last two years partnering with some fantastic people and organizations. We especially want to tell you about the great work they’re doing using mobile.

At Mobile Accord we believe that mobile technology can be used for more than just downloading the latest, greatest ringtones and wallpapers. We believe that mobile technology can help make a difference for important causes and issues that people care about. That’s why we’ve created tools and technology that help nonprofits, political organizations, universities, and cause-marketers leverage the power of a wide range of mobile technologies, including SMS (text messaging), PSMS (premium SMS), mobile content (ringtones, wallpapers, etc.), and WAP (mobile internet).

We’re helping groups like United Way, ASPCA, Harvard University, and IFAW (plus others!) successfully implement and integrate mobile into their everyday outreach and fundraising efforts – and we’re proud of it. We’re passionate about helping our customers achieve their missions and make an impact using mobile technology.

We’ve created this blog in order to share real-life examples of how mobile is being used for advocacy, education, fundraising, cause-marketing, and volunteerism. Our goal is to foster an environment of open dialogue, ideas, and resources for anyone interested in using technology to influence change.

We hope you’ll check back often and join us in creating a new culture of philanthropy!