Research from the Mobile Marketing Association and Lightspeed Research has revealed that almost a quarter of all UK, French and German people surveyed had donated to the Haitian Earthquake relief efforts. A total of 28.4% of these donors had used their mobile phones to pledge money; 21.4% via text and 7% by visiting a website from their mobile device.
In the UK, 9% of all donors used text and 8.6% visited a website from their mobile phone. However, mobile usage was much higher in France and Germany, where text donations came from 30% and 26% of all donors respectively.
UK mobile consumers described themselves as the most likely to donate by mobile in the future; 19% of UK consumers said they were 'very likely' or 'likely' to do this, followed by the French at 16% and the Germans at 11%.
Ralph Risk, EMEA Marketing Director at Lightspeed Research, said "The research shows that donating to charities using mobile phones is now popular and with the high penetration and usage of mobile, this medium could provide an attractive new opportunity for charities to fundraise. To help encourage more people to contribute, charities still need to educate people about how they can donate, while at the same time re-assuring them that the money will go to the nominated charity and that their phone numbers will not be used without their permission."