Sms donations go 'scramble' in London

The last year's Asian Tsunami started a sms charity mania through out the entire world. Apparently, money earned from sms donations aren’t going in the good direction. The Institute of Fundraising from LONDON will contact the major mobile phone operators after seeing at some numbers...reports that as much as a quarter of text donations are skimmed off before reaching charities. Some one is checking the wrong pockets I guess…Media reports uncovered figures showing that SMS donations saw between 17% and 25% of the total amount donated was lost in charges, including those levied by the mobile operators and aggregator companies. Now, that’s not a very big surprise in the lands of virtual money.

Donating money to charities is a very different proposition to a commercial transaction and the two should not be treated in the same way.

, said Lyndsay Boswell, chief execuitve of the Institute of Fundraising. It is only since the outpouring of goodwill after that Boxing Day tsunami that charities have begun to harness the power of SMS donations. The Disasters Emergency Committee ‘earned’ £1m through 700,000 text donations in two months through it’s tsunami appeal.