January 14th, 2010 Posted by Liriel
Haiti SOS by SMS
Over $2 million has been raised through mobile phone giving for earthquake aid in Haiti, according to the New York Times Lede blog. Awareness of the different ways to donate — text “Haiti” to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross or “YELE” to 501501 donate $5 to Haitian-born musician Wyclef Jean’s charity — has been helped by word-of-mouth publicizing on Facebook and Twitter:
The texted donations are being handled by a company called mGive, which started the campaign in a joint effort with the State Department and the Red Cross late Tuesday night. Thanks to a mention on the White House’s blog and lots of word of mouth on Twitter and Facebook, the campaign had raised well over a million dollars by Tuesday evening, mGive said.
“Today is a huge day for mobile giving,” said Tony Aiello, chief executive of mGive. “We are experiencing a tipping point.” …
Mr. Aiello said the widespread adoption of cellphones and social media Web sites was helping to foster this approach to fund-raising. “Mobile giving is currently outpacing the early days of online giving,” he said.
Awareness about the disaster in Haiti has swept through Twitter and other social media sites. Facebook, for example, said its users had posted more than 1,500 status updates a minute containing the word Haiti.
MGive, which was founded in 2005, works with more than 200 organizations and charities, including the American Heart Foundation and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Mr. Aiello said the Haiti campaign had “outpaced anything we’ve every done in mobile giving so far” and showed no signs of slowing.


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