Donations made by texting may take time to reach Haiti

MIAMI —
In the rush to donate money to charities aiding victims of the Haitian
earthquake, cell phone users have been texting keywords such as HAITI and YELE to five- or six-digit numbers. But the roughly $27 million in donations made by text so far may not travel to the devastated Caribbean nation nearly as fast as your message.

Under normal circumstances, it can take up to 90 days for text donations to be funneled to charities, said Jed Alpert, founder of Mobile Commons, which runs many text-message donation programs in partnership with the Mobile Giving Foundation. The delay is because the donations aren’t collected until texters pay their cell phone bills.

“We work with a huge number of nonprofits. In the
past it has been an issue: Some organizations have said this isn’t
going to work for us,” Alpert said.

Some cell phone carriers are working to shorten the lag time because of the urgent need for aid to Haiti. For example, Sprint is advancing 80 percent of the money donated via text to participating charities, spokeswoman Crystal Davis said. That translates into about $2.2 million that has already been sent Haiti rescue efforts.

The remaining 20 percent of text donations will be sent at the traditional pace, she said.

Verizon advanced all donations users had made as of Friday night: about $3 million, spokesman Chuck Hamby said.

“We know the value of getting the money to the
organizations so they can help people now,” he said. “The plan is to do
that again,” but a date has not been set.

T-Mobile spokeswoman Amanda Ginther said to circumvent the typical delay in getting text donations to
charity groups, her company is working to transmit text donations from
its customers to Haiti this week and plans weekly transmissions for the near future.

Donations by text to Haiti are the largest in American history, Hamby said. The $27 million given through texts eclipses the amount of donations via text raised for Hurricane Katrina victims: less than $500,000.

The largest benefactor of donations by text for Haiti rescue efforts has been the American Red Cross, which has generated more than $22 million in donations, the U.S. State Department reported Monday.

Many cell phone companies are waiving the
text-messaging fees associated with special text codes. Most common are
waivers for texts that contribute to the American Red Cross.

Typically, users are charged for sending messages to
five-digit numbers created to buy ring tones, music or make donations —
even if their cell phone plans include text-messaging allowances.

But not every text to a charity will be free: Each
cell phone carrier decides for which organizations it is waiving fees.
Beware of sham groups hoping to profit off Americans’ current spirit of
giving.

For example, at the moment, Sprint is waiving fees only for texts to the American Red Cross, Yele Haiti Foundation, William J. Clinton Foundation, Internal Rescue Committee, and Rescue Union Mission and MedCorp International.

“If consumers have questions about a new short code that we haven’t mentioned, it would be best to look at mGive or the Mobile Giving Foundation,” Davis said. “We know that with everything that’s going on there is a possibility of fraud.”

How to help:

Most American cell phone carriers are allowing donations via text to the American Red Cross. By texting “HAITI” to 90999, you’ll donate $10 to the organization, a charge that will appear on your monthly bill or debited from your prepaid account.

The entire amount will be sent to the American Red Cross.

mGive, a for-profit company that created the text-donation platform for the American Red Cross, is foregoing fees typically charged for these kinds of donations.

Many carriers are waiving the fees associated with these types of texts, but check with your company to avoid a surprise charge.

Once you send a text, you’ll receive a reply asking
to confirm your donation. To confirm, reply YES. You should then
receive a confirmation text. Then you’ll receive an additional text
asking if you want text updates from the American Red Cross.

To confirm that your donation went through, go to http://www.mgive.org/receipt/ and enter your mobile number. Most wireless carriers will allow you to make two $10 donations per month, according to mGive.com.

Look at mGive.com and mobilegiving.org to see charities accepting text donations. They include:

—The Yele Haiti Foundation created by musician Wyclef Jean. Text “YELE” to 501501 to donate $5.

—The William J. Clinton Foundation. Text “HAITI” to 20222 to donate $10.

—The Rescue Union Mission and MedCorp International. Text “HAITI” to 85944 to donate $10.

—To donate via iTunes, where you can make donations in larger amounts, go to https://buy.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/buyCharityGiftWizard.

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