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.