Haiti: Millions help via SMS

: Old-fashioned television telethons can stretch on for hours. But the latest charity appeal is short enough for Twitter: "Text HAITI to 90999 to donate $10 to (AT)RedCross relief."

In the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti, many Americans are reaching for their cell phones to make a donation via text message. And plenty of them are then spreading the word to others on sites like Twitter and Facebook.

The American Red Cross, which is working with a mobile donations firm called mGive, said Thursday that it had raised more than $5 million this way.

"There is an enormous outpouring for this effort," said Wendy Harman, social media manager at the Red Cross. "It's such an easy way to give and pass around through social sites on the Web."

The mobile donations are part of a larger surge of money flowing to the relief effort. The Red Cross said it had collected nearly $35 million as of Thursday night, surpassing the amounts it received in the same time period after Hurricane Katrina and the Indian Ocean tsunami.

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Companies also lent a hand: Google pledged $1 million to Unicef and other charitable organizations, while Microsoft promised $1.25 million in cash and donations as well as technical support for relief groups in Haiti.

"When something like this happens it's incredibly frustrating because there isn't much that we can do," said Laura Fitton, a media consultant who has raised money for charity on Twitter. "It helps to be able to at least make a gesture, and that is what is catching on."

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The Red Cross expects that donations made through more established channels - writing a check or on the Web - will still far outweigh text-message giving. But the cell phone campaign may be reaching people who might not otherwise have made the effort to get involved.

The Red Cross solicited text-message donations as part of other relief efforts, with the biggest amount, $190,000, raised after Hurricane Ike in 2008. None of those caught on like the efforts for Haiti.

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Convenience is one factor in the campaign's success. People simply send a designated word to a five- or six-digit number and then confirm that they want to give, and the donation is charged to their wireless bill. At the end of the month, the carriers transfer the contributions to a service provider like mGive, which passes them on to the charity.

Some of the major wireless carriers, including AT&T and T-Mobile, are encouraging donations by waiving the cost of the text messages. And mGive says it will not charge its usual fees, so all of the money will go to the Red Cross.

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Similarly, MasterCard, Visa and American Express said on Thursday that they would waive transaction fees for some charitable donations to the relief efforts.

While it takes just a minute to donate via text message, the actual money transfers can take a while.

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"What people may not realize is that it could take up to 90 days before the money actually reaches the charity," said Art Taylor, president of the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance. "We're advising people to follow up that $10 donation by going to the Web sites and donating directly."

The cell phone carriers and mGive said they were working to accelerate the flow of funds. "We've been looking since yesterday at how to speed up the process for this particular situation," said Jeffrey Nelson, a spokesman for Verizon Wireless. He said the company was working on a system that would advance the contributions.

Taylor cautioned that the urge to give could provide opportunities for scammers. "Even with Web sites, people should be careful to ensure they're giving to the charity they intend to," he said. The Better Business Bureau has posted tips on its Web site, bbb.org, about ways to vet Web sites and text-message solicitations.

Many other charities have rushed to promote their cellphone campaigns. One that has spread widely was started by the Haitian-born musician Wyclef Jean, who took to Twitter urging his 1.4 million followers to donate to his foundation by texting the word "Yele" to the number 501501. As of Thursday he had raised more than $1 million for relief efforts.

The Red Cross campaign was helped by endorsements from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the White House's blog, giving legitimacy to an unfamiliar mode of giving. And word of the campaigns was all over Facebook and Twitter.

Sysomos, an analytics firm in Toronto, estimated that nearly 150,000 posts containing both "Haiti" and "Red Cross" were sent through Twitter since the quake.

Chase Turner, a 26-year-old media analyst in Minneapolis, said he had been bombarded with messages about Haiti "across all the social networking sites I am on." He donated via text message after hearing about the Red Cross campaign on Twitter.

Being able to post a message about contributing helps reinforce the trend, Turner said. "It's really nice to be able to say and show that you've done something," he said.

Philanthropy experts say the text-messaging approach could have a lasting impact on the charity world.

"This may be a new way for people to give and give robustly," Taylor said. "If it continues after the disaster, then maybe we've discovered a new habit for giving to charities."