Fundraising Consultants Blog

The Disasters Emergency Committee's East Africa Appeal has set a new record for the charity for donations by SMS.  The previous highest total raised by text for a DEC appeal was £230,000 for the 2010 Haiti Earthquake Appeal.

SMS is a great medium for mass response to a campaign like this with high visibility, lots of free publicity (and rightly so!), and a high level of brand awareness and respect such as DEC's.  But it can also work for smaller causes.  The key - as with any form of fundraising is to: 

1. spend the optimum amount getting the ask out and get maximum free awareness - via your own supporters, the press/media, blogs etc. etc.(you get the idea!).
2. Test and measure!  If you have no track record, don't make assumptions, and don't put all your eggs in one basket - spend enough to make the test statistically significant if you can, but expect to make a loss.
3. Integrate: you don't want only one way to make the appeal known, so why have only one way to respond?  And how does this appeal fit into your overall communications plan?

Go to the DEC site for their press release on this.

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