Cause Marketing

There you are walking down Lake Shore Drive past the rising Chicago Spire building eating a Chicago Red Hot , when you’re struck by a billboard with a message from, say, MercyCorps , asking for help providing relief to the cyclone-battered people in Myanmar’s Irrawaddy delta. But the sign doesn’t feature a website URL, a toll-free telephone number or even an address to send a check. Instead the sign tells you to text the word ‘Give’ to a number using your cell phone and a $5 donation will be made. To the Japanese or Europeans that scenario probably sounds not so much futuristic as so 2006. But it’s new in the United States, made possible by lower fees from the cell phone carriers. If analysts are correct, cell phone fundraising may be a prominent future fundraising channel for charities with a clear mission, strong brand recognition and the ability to effectively get their message to their audience. What’s the potential upside of this mobile phone fundraising in the United States? “$...