Future of Mobile Device Fundraising

Think back to just five years ago: phones flipped open, no one knew what Angry Birds were, and many parents weren’t plagued by excessive texting bills. Mobile technology is developing at a lightning fast pace as evidenced by mile long iPhone lines and ever evolving mobile device capabilities and applications. Political fundraising is testing this revolution in connecting with supporters and the current presidential election is setting the stage for this neoteric form of collecting funds.A donation via mobile phone is a fairly new development for nonprofit fundraising. Gaining popularity through natural disasters and the Red Cross’ attempt to help those affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Isaac and the earthquake that shook Haiti, it’s not uncommon for larger charities to set up a campaign to attract donations through the ease and convenience of a cell phone. Just by texting a keyword to a given phone number, a set donation is charged to the donor’s phone bill.This is the first presidential election ever to incorporate mobile device payments into their grass roots fundraising strategies. From Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, and AT&T, the major cell phone companies have willingly made their services accessible to the political world. However, this transition isn’t solely for the purpose of furthering democracy. ““Wireless carriers typically take 30 to 50 percent off the top of mobile contributions—a carryover from their fees on commercial content like apps,” reports the Campaign Insider. “But AT&T intends to implement a new model where rates are a percentage of the contribution amount, a flat per-text message charge or some combination of the two for text donations of $1, $2, $5, $10, $15 and $20.”Furthermore, over 53% of mobile phone users have a smart phone. With this high tech tool, text donations are just one function that phones play to promote the candidates. According to Forbes.com writer Scott Gillum, “The Obama campaign team has developed an app that links a Google map to the neighborhood that volunteers are working. The map contains blue flags at homes with doors to be knocked on, including scripts for approaching individual voters.”On the Republican side, Gillum comments that, “Romney’s With Mitt app lets supporters choose from a number of ‘With Mitt’ templates to upload a photo from their phones and quickly share it on Twitter or Facebook. The Romney camp has also recently rolled out Mitt Events that enable supporters to view upcoming rallies in their area, find friends attending events and view tweets from attendees in real time.”We are just starting to scratch the surface of what technology can do for the future of fundraising. From accessing donor information, obtaining current contribution amounts, and filtering lists for FEC compliance, telecommunications and the high tech industries are reformulating the tactics in which dollars are raised.