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Donate to a cause through texting. I believe it is the best mass-based fund raising scheme, at least in the present time and in this country.
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There are an estimated 55 million cellphone users in the Philippines as of 2007. Even just a peso from just 10 percent of all cellphone users will easily fetch 5.5 million pesos.
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A number of charitable NGOs are starting to realize this.
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Just a few days ago I got an unsolicited text message from my mobile service provider, SMART, encouraging me to donate to PONDO NG PINOY, an NGO undertaking feeding programs for street children. The invitation to donate is almost impossible to resist: P5.00 every 20 days (or 25 centavos per day). How do you say ìnoî to something like that?
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The process of sending donation by text/SMS is very easy, too. In the case of PONDO NG PINOY I just texted PONDO ON to 4483 (I believe the GLOBE counterpart number is 2298).
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The fact that the invitations to donate are sent out through the mobile service providers (i.e. SMART, GLOBE, SUN) also gives a comfort feeling that the appeals for donation are not a hoax designed to defraud 55 million Filipinos of 25 centavos a day.
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There is an incredible twist to my mobile donation to PONDO NG PINOY. I was driving to work when I got the text message. A few minutes after signing up as a donor (while negotiating my way through the morning traffic jam) I noticed some banners along the center island of Roxas Boulevard. They are advertisements for the RED CROSS and, of course, an invitation to support the organization through monetary donations. And what do I know? The proposition is exactly the same as with PONDO NG PINOY: P5.00 every 20 days or 25 centavos per day. And I am also to sign up to it as a donor by sending to SMART’s 4483, this time by texting RED ON.
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And that is how I ended up donating to two charities within minutes of each other. I feel good about it, and just a little poorer (by P0.50 a day). If only two other charities will ask me to donate the same so I can even out my daily donation to P1.00 a day. #
