Bean Blog

In one day, the American Red Cross (a Bean client) raised just shy of $1M from mobile text donations.

This is phenomenal on a variety of levels.

While Bean Creative didn’t implement the mobile campaign, it’s exciting to see one of our clients pull off such an amazingly successful donation drive in less than 24 hours.

Equally impressive is the outpouring of response from the general public, who not only responded in $10 donation increments, but also took to their social media outlets and spread the word like wildfire via Twitter, Facebook and the like.

Of course, the devastation in Haiti certainly appeals to the humanity in all of us to do something to help.

But the incredible ease in which the Red Cross gave anyone with a phone the ability to respond was an awesome example of using instant technology for the greater good.

You didn’t have to grab your credit card and key in your numbers. You didn’t have to provide your billing details. All of this was handled by the phone companies, who used existing mobile accounts to pass through the donations.

In fact, donating seemed SO easy (text Haiti to 90999) that I actually took a few minutes to research it before I donated to make sure it wasn’t a hoax!

Kudos to the team at the American Red Cross to have had the foresight to coordinate with phone companies prior to this calamity and secure their cooperation to act as a conduit for donation. You can donate from anywhere and you don’t have to worry about overloading a site’s commerce system. They also made a great marketing call by asking for just $10 — an amount that is both manageable to give and yet feels substantial enough to provide aid.

And what a great community service the phone companies are providing by serving as the donation gateway around the nation.

All the more reason why mobile is such an exciting and impactful area for interactive growth. The phone in your pocket is the key to the future…

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