Opening phones, opening wallets

Americans learned a new way to give last week. It was simple process: creating a new text message, entering the five-digit code 90999 in the address bar and the simple message "Haiti" in the body, and $10 was shot off to the Red Cross. In and of itself the donation isn't large — the Red Cross usually asks for a minimum of $30 on its Web site — but multiplied by 1 million subscribers and the result is an unprecedented flood of contributions to the American Red Cross and other relief agencies providing emergency aid to earthquake-stricken Haiti.

The Mobile Giving Foundation put total donations via text message to Haiti relief over $20 million by Monday afternoon, with millions more expected to follow this week. Now compare that to the $400,000 raised via text over the entire month of August, 2005, after Hurricane Katrina, a disaster even closer to home, which directly affected the lives of far more Americans. It's not that we've suddenly become more compassionate or that we have more disposable income for charity. Rather, it shows that the mobile phone has come of age as the device we trust from the simplest to the most complex transactions.

Since Katrina, we've voted for American Idols via text, we've written checks through mobile banking sites, and we've bought applications through app stores in ever-increasing numbers. The idea of using a phone for any transaction, whether money is attached to it or not, is no longer a foreign concept to us. The Web revolutionized charitable giving by allowing people to conveniently donate small amounts via credit card. Now the mobile phone is further revolutionizing that trend by allowing those contributions immediately.

For a full list of relief agencies that accept donations for Haiti aid via text see our latest blog post.

E-mail me at kevin.fitchard@penton.com.