You check emails on it, take photos, shop, plan journeys,
check your bank balance, wake up to it and occasionally you might even use it
to call your mum - we are glued to our phones.
But which charities are making best use of mobile for
fundraising? At October's Direct Marketing Officers (DMO) Club * we started a list. Here are five of our
favourites:
1. Touch Look Check (TLC) - Breakthrough Breast Cancer/Breast Cancer Now
We had to mention this - partly because we work on it,
but partly because it really was one of the trailblazers of value exchange. You
want to know the five signs of breast cancer right? Send us a text, and we will
call you back to get your address to send out your free guide... Now, while
we've got you on the phone...
Simple but effective, TLC hits two objectives: get health
information out to the public, and bring on board new regular givers.
Initially the campaign was tested out of home (trains and
washrooms). It smashed targets, and rolled out as part of business as usual
activity, adding in DRTV. Three years, one merger, a new brand and a summer of
discontent later and TLC is still going strong. In fact, response is better
than ever before!
It's a great combination - information people want, and a
cause people care about.
2. Mobile Membership - Diabetes UK. One to watch!
Why have a one-off value exchange when you can have one a
month? Diabetes UK have reinvigorated their existing membership product for a
younger audience, rolling out a mobile version using Mobilise (regular giving
by SMS).
Content from the members' magazine is going mobile, with
supporters able to sign up to receive monthly updates with tips, recipes and
support specific to their condition, in return for a £3 monthly donation by
SMS. As standard with Mobilise, users can skip a month or stop at any time.
The product launched a few months ago and so far
recruitment has been through warm lists, mainly email. But this winter the
product is rolling out through GPs surgeries, to reach new audiences. Watch
this space...
3. Send a net, Save a life - Christian Aid
Is this the grand daddy of text to donate? Christian Aid
paired a simple, tangible ask with then-new technology of premium SMS. The charity
sector has never looked back.
4. The Bee Cause - Friends of the Earth
Another pioneer of text to get fundraising, the
wildflower seeds campaign showed value exchange could work not only for health
charities but for other causes too.
5. Straight to Mobilise DRTV - Cancer Research UK
Cancer Research UK found a new way to put donors in the driving seat with their straight-to-mobolise DRTV advert. Cutting out the callback is an attractive proposition for donors, refreshing response rates and cutting acquisition costs.
Do you agree or disagree? Or is there another mobile fundraising campaign that has caught your eye? Let us know in the comments, or head over to the DMO (Direct Marketing Officers) Club on LinkedIn and join in the discussion. You can find us here.
Ruth Stokes & Emily Pond, DMO Club.
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* The DMO (Direct Marketing Officers) Club is an informal
group for direct marketing fundraisers working at officer level. As well as our
LinkedIn group we meet in London every other month.
Our next meeting will be
in the evening of 25th November when we’ll be hearing from Daniel Fluskey, Head
of Policy and Research at the Institute of Fundraising. Come and join us!
