The use of mobile phones for fundraising purposes has huge potential and has been explored in a report by nfpSynergy, the Institute of Fundraising and the Charities Aid Foundation: Sending out an SMS: The potential of mobile phones and text messaging for charities and non-profit organisations. This research demonstrates fundraising organisations' recognition of this, yet many are still preventing from using mobile phones for fundraising and communications purposes.
There has been a particular reluctance to use SMS messages as a means of encouraging and indeed facilitating support. The report suggests that this may be part be due to a lack of knowledge in the sector about how to maximise the potential. It is hoped that the report will go some way to alleviating this.
However, the research confirms that the greatest barrier is the huge tarrifs charged by mobile phone operators. This inevitably puts off both the fundraising organisation from using the mechanism and the supporter from making a donation.
To try and overcome the barriers to the use of mobile phones and more specifically SMS messages, the report makes a number of suggestions to help fundraising organisations.
Find out how you can build mobile technology into your fundraising strategy by reading the full report.
