Feeling Charitable? Send a Text Message

By Molly Galler

By Molly Galler

Every year around November it happens. You arrive home to a mail box full of not only the card from Grandma and the photo of aunt Trish’s family in matching holiday sweaters, but the never ending pile of solicitations.

During the Holiday period charitable organizations reach out to their donors and make end-of-year requests for donations. It’s the final push before the end of the calendar year. The solicitations often include free gifts – calendars, return address labels, or notepads. These items are intended to be a daily reminder of the good work the organization does and urge you to make a donation. The package also usually includes a pre-addressed envelope for you to send back to the charity with your check for donation.

In a time where snail mail and paying bills with paper checks feels like a thing of the past, charitable organizations are being forced to change up their fundraising tactics. In order to keep donors informed of what’s going on with the organization many charities have chosen to not only create websites tracking their work; but have designed Facebook pages, send email updates to their donors, send crisis alert messages to donors’ phones, track construction projects through Google Earth images, as well as allow donors to make donations with just a simple text message.

In today’s USA Today Andrea Stone commented:

“Technology is gaining fast on tradition . . . One of the newest tools to raise small donations is text messaging. Singer Alicia Keys raised more than $40,000 to combat AIDS in Africa by asking fans during her recent tour, which ended in June, to donate $5 on their cellphones, according to the charity Keep a Child Alive. Jim Manis started the Mobile Giving Foundation in Bellevue, Wash., in 2006 to get wireless companies to pass along donations made by texting. Texting appeals to young adults underrepresented among givers, he says. “It’s a great medium for an impulse gift.”

In these hard economic times, sending a brief text message to make a donation feels much less taxing on the wallet, then sitting down to write a check. Who knew texting could be so generous?

3 comments October 7th, 2008

SNL Goes Over The Party Line – Pulls Video

By Ben Haber

By Ben Haber

On Sunday I was showing my brother some of the clips from SNL this past weekend.  While the highlight of the show was Tina Fey (again), we noticed that there were a few more digs at the democrats that usual in some of the skits. Apparently we weren’t the only ones who noticed.

There was one skit about the financial crisis that featured a press conference with President Bush, Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank. However, this segment was different then the normal SNL skit: it placed blame on the Democrats. In fact, it blasted big-time billionaire democrat George Soros and said that Herbert and Marion Sandler (real people that were portrayed in the skit) ‘should be shot’.

The clip was initially put on Hulu, but has since been pulled, Mashable reports:

A number of mostly right-wing political pundits are noting this evening that Hulu, NBC, and YouTube have all pulled what was an incredibly hilarious video lampooning the bailout bill announcement from CSPAN… The Sandlers are seething over the skit. And George Soros must be livid as well. Anyone else smell a legal threat behind the disappearance of the video?

While its unknown who exactly is responsible for having the skit pulled, it clearly did not go over well with someone.

It’s no secret that SNL has been in favor of Obama, but it’s interesting to see that while conservatives have continuously been blasted on the show, just one step over the line against liberals can result in pulling a clip.

This of course leads us to the question, is it right to allow political interests to control the internet?

2 comments October 7th, 2008