In this case I’m warning charities away from Premium Rate (reversed billed) text messaging to collect donations. For clarity this isn’t about normal every day, free to the recipient messaging.

A changing market

There have been some ground-breaking changes to the premium rate market in the last year in regard to how much of the money charged to a mobile user the network operators will share with the charities.

More revenue

We have seen 100% of the revenue passed to the charities in massive high profile campaigns such as red nose day.

We have also seen increased amounts of revenue passed down to charities if they use specific “charity” short codes. But the use of these codes is currently limited by very expensive setup costs. But let’s not get too excited about additional percentage revenue. Some of the networks still retain nearly 25% of the donation. Don’t forget, this is the donation the consumer made to your charity.

Tighter regulation

Then there’s the regulation, Phonepayplus are tightening up their rules, you ought to be getting prior approval for premium rate services to ensure you comply with the regulations. Even if an SMS supplier will do this for free don’t underestimate the time you’ll spend on this part alone. The last thing you want as a charity is a regulatory fine and being named and shamed on their publicly available list of adjudications. If you want to avoid this then you’d better be involved.

Will it be successful?

So let’s say you paid the setup fees for a specialist charity code to get a higher share of the revenue. Or perhaps even you chose not to pay for the additional revenue and you’re receiving what can be as little as 35% of the donation. Then is it really going to be worth it or are you better diverting your fund raising energies to other areas?

Clearly you need to work on a case by case basis and calculate the likelihood of success, but I can’t help but feel it’s a massive risk.

Please, prove me wrong

I’d love to hear of some really successful campaigns that are not by one of the big national/ international charities, and if you know then send it through and prove me wrong.

But for now, I’m not convinced.

Charity short codes benefit from different VAT treatment by Network Operators. So long as the use of the short code meets certain criteria, the donation is VAT exempt so the charity will receive a greater proportion of the donation.

The same conditions apply in that Service Providers will need one short code per price point for charitable donations.

Full details are available here

or contact your local SMS Provider for more info

The fundraising service which was set up right after the earthquake.

The money was collected on behalf of Italy’s department of civil protection and the telecommunications companies did not charge any fees for the charity service.

SMS is clearly a powerful medium for donating. Red Nose day in the UK also used it to huge advantage. They key issue, as always, is that not all charities have sufficient weight to get the network operators to pass on 100% of the donation.

One can only imagine how much additional funds charities could earn if they were to change their stance.

With more than 50 million mobile phones in Britain, it was inevitable that a charity one day would begin to use mobile messaging for fund raising purposes. After all, the mobile phone is the one device that we all have and carry, and text and video messaging generates six times more responses than direct mail.

Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice in Farnham is launching the first mobile charity campaign ever in Britain on 11th May and passengers at Farnham station that day will be the first to experience mobile charity marketing.

The campaign has been helped by a grant from Help the Hospices, the UK’s leading charity supporting hospice care, which was funded by the Towergate Charitable Foundation.

Serving a population of more than 600,000 across West Surrey and North East Hampshire, Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice has been offering specialist palliative care to adults facing the end of their lives and to those who love and care for them for the last 30 years. Pallative care is more than just controlling symptoms and pain; it’s a holistic approach that embraces every aspect of the needs and worries of the terminally ill as well as the needs of their families.

Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice is an independent charity and treats 100 patients and families every day of the year at a cost of seven pounds per minute, or £10,000 per day. Only 16% of funds received to cover operational costs come from the NHS. The rest comes from legacies, sales at its 12 charity shops, fund raising events and local businesses.

The mobile campaign is being launched in the background of the Hospice needing to provide more much-needed help and support to patients and their families beyond the physical space of the Hospice. Donations received will help enable it to be more mobile in its operations, providing more care to the terminally-ill in their homes.

“Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice believes that while we can’t add days to life, we can certainly add life to days,” says Elle Georgiou, the charity’s communications manager. “In the Hospice’s 30th birthday year, we’re looking for new and innovative ways to raise the funds we need to achieve our vision of providing specialist care in the location of the patient’s choice, which is usually in the comfort of their own home. We believe that harnessing the immediacy of mobile phone technology to engage with our community could well become an effective way of generating immediate responses and donations.”

The mobile campaign uses the mobile services of mobile marketing company Mediaburst and will be repeated on 18th May at Guildford Station.

Donate, Donate Donate – how it works

By texting HELP to shortcode 84433, users will immediately receive a mobile response containing a link to view a mobile video. After viewing the video, they will be encouraged to donate by texting GIVE to shortcode 80556 and agree to be billed five pounds. They then receive back an SMS thanking them for their donation.