A recent study of mobile giving during the Haiti crisis shows how effective “text to donate” campaigns can be. Convio, Edge Research, and Sea Change Strategies collaborated on the project and it is available to download in pdf format.

Some of the key findings include:

•77% knew that they could donate via texting to support Haiti relief work
•17% of Gen Y & 14% of Gen X donated to Haiti via texting
•3% of both Boomer and Mature donated via texting
•36% of all respondents would consider texting a donation after a crisis
•31% would text a donation if a friend was raising money for a charity

One of the drawbacks of mobile giving is the lag time from donation to recieving the funds. Nonprofits can expect up to a 90 day delay to recieve the donation. For disaster relief, that can be a big problem. Expect to see creative solutions over the next 6-12 months to reduce the wait time.