Mobile Giving Brand Standards
Stephen Joos, January 21st, 2009 If we look into history, we see that for a new medium to be effective it must be incorporated into brand standards for companies nationwide. An early example of this is an address. If you were a nonprofit organization back in the day, you would do business mostly in person at your office or by mail. People needed to be able to find you, so your address was a critical component of any outgoing materials (read- business cards).
Fast-forward to 1984, when 1-800 numbers became widely available to companies and nonprofit organizations across the US. They added their 800 number to their collateral (letterhead, business cards, rubix cubes, etc.). For nonprofit organizations, this meant a new way of giving: a central, free-to-the-end-user source to donate money, and spawned the birth of large-scale call centers.
In 1999, we saw a significant increase in the integration of website URL’s into a nonprofit organization’s brand standards. This resulted in over $192 Million in online donations for nonprofits in 1999, according to a report by Network for Good. In 2007, over $10.4 Billion in online contributions were made as donors used the web to express their support for these organizations. The main factor was the understanding that the web was not only a communication channel for nonprofits, but a fundraising channel.
In 2008, the Mobile Giving channel was introduced to the nonprofit world, with great results- just under $500,000 was raised through the channel beating out the first year of online donations. As many blogs and news outlets report for 2009, the buzzword and channel to watch is Mobile Giving. This is the year of Mobile Giving, and for the channel to be successful, mobile must be integrated into your organization’s brand standards. As Mobile Giving is not only a fundraising channel, but also a communication channel, your mobile call to action should be placed everywhere you have your website or 800 Number.
For any questions on integrating a mobile call to action into your brand standards, please visit our inquiry form, or email support [at] mgive.com
Categories: mGive Blog brand standards, mgive, mobile branding, mobile business cards, mobile donations, mobile giving, mobile giving brand standards, mobile marketing, mobile standards, nonprofit marketing, online donations, online giving, sms donations
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