Bernie Saunders uses SMS real good... (#FeelTheBern)

Do you know where to #CaucusForBernie today? Text 'CAUCUS' to 82623.

A photo posted by Bernie Sanders (@berniesanders) on Feb 1, 2016 at 1:35pm PST

The picture above and the two below. Oh, just political campaigners in the USA showing us how to use mobile in political campaigns properly...

I really think 'join the SMS list' could be a great tool for UK charities. SMS messages get read. It helps.

A political revolution is coming. Join us and text BERNIE to 82623 to sign up for important campaign updates today.

A photo posted by Bernie Sanders (@berniesanders) on Sep 13, 2015 at 1:22pm PDT

Join our text list to receive important campaign updates including local events in your area!

A photo posted by Bernie Sanders (@berniesanders) on Jul 6, 2015 at 6:37am PDT

Four more years!

This is a serious fundraising blog. No room for any fun here. Oh no.

But I did get a teeny weeny bit excited about the US elections. Maybe a bit obsessed. So I'm really pleased that Obama beat Mitt.

I also loved the Texts from Hillary Tumbler earlier in the year. And I really love this. I think you might as well.

Obama, Blippar, Mobile

Politics, fundraising & mobile. What's not to like?



Found on the brilliant Digital Examples blog.

Text giving research from the USA

mGive in the US have released their second annual report into text giving in the USA.

It’s a great piece of research; you can download your copy here.

Some headline findings:

85% of respondents who give to an charity via text are also willing to give in other ways.

23% of donors are interested in giving a regular text donation.

99% of those surveyed are aware of text giving as an option.

78% of those surveyed would like information about the charities they support.

That last point is a very interesting one. As we recruit donors who are happy to support our causes by mobile we need to change the way we deliver retention messages to them.

An SMS that says thank you, informs supporters about our latest campaign or directs them to a news article that relates to our work could be just as effective in terms of retention as that newsletter you post to your donors twice a year.

eBay, mobile & fundraising

There seem to be lots of examples of virtual stores that utilise QR Codes to sell goods. Most of them for commercial companies, so this fundraising example from the USA really caught my eye.

Toys for Tots have bagged a fabulous corporate partner in eBay who've set up two ‘Give a Toy’ stores. One in New York and the other in San Francisco. But the really cool bit is that the stores have interactive store fronts that enable passers-by to engage in the display by downloading an app and scanning QR Codes.

You can buy gifts from $2 to $25. As donations are made the toys come to life on the donors phone to celebrate being donated and say thank you.

The campaign is supported by an online version for those that don’t live in New York or San Francisco, you can also customise a virtual toy via Facebook.

Seems that a corporate partner helps drive innovation in mobile giving. The recent and brilliant UNICEF Own a Colour campaign was launched with the support of paint company Dulux and included text as a payment mechanism.

There will be lots and lots of this in 2012. The commercial sector has totally embraced mobile and can see that it's a great way to add significant value to their charity partnerships. There are some brilliant ideas being discussed out there at the moment, can't wait to see the ideas turn into actual campaigns.

Busman's holiday; a brilliant example of message & media from NYC

I've just got back from my 10th wedding anniversary trip to New York City.

Mrs DG and I were supposed to go there for our honeymoon, but in the aftermath of 9-11 we decided to show our respect for the city's grief by not going at that time.  We've been many times since we got married and it's a place that I absolutely love.

But as I'm sure all fundraisers do on holiday I'm constantly on the look out for examples of how things are done abroad.

On this trip I was really impressed with this corporate partnership between Heinz and the Wounded Warrior Project, the US version of Help for Heroes.

Before I went on this trip there was a wide ranging discussion in the office about how we need to be much more creative when thinking about the media we use for our clients campaigns. We've had great success with print and TV when it comes to driving response to SMS campaigns, but we really breakthrough with low cost per acquisitions when we test things that aren't so obvious. For example trains, service station toilet doors and changing rooms in high street shops.

We know that potential supporters carry their phone everywhere, we know that the right creative will drive a response in the most peculiar of locations - so we need to think much more creatively about where we place our messages.

Which is why I love this one. Think about it. In the run up to Veterans' Day in all the supermarkets, diners, restaurants and breakfast tables across america was this very simple message.



By texting thanks to the brilliantly sourced shortcode 57000 and Heinz will donate 57 cents.

You can also donate by liking Heinz on Facebook.

There is even a QR Code for smartphone users. As an aside QR Codes get a bad press here in the UK fundraising world, they were everywhere in New York.

This brilliant campaign really got me thinking about how we should be more creative with our corporate partnerships and how we need to constantly be looking for new places to put our messages.

In my mind the response to this was phenomenal, especially on the morning of Veterans' Day in the hundreds of New York diners. Like the one I took these pictures in. I look forward to finding out exactly how successful it was.