Text Messaging Provides Boon to Red Cross Haiti Relief

Washington – Text-message
donations are playing a larger-than-expected role in the push for earthquake
relief in Haiti,
The New York Times Reported. As of late Sunday, the American Red Cross said
that it had collected pledges of about $103 million, including $22 million
through a program in which cell phone users can donate $10 by texting
"90999."

"I need a better word than ‘unprecedented’ or ‘amazing’
to describe what’s happened with the text-message program," Red Cross
spokesman Roger Lowe told the paper.

Lowe said that the National Football
League (NFL) greatly aided the effort over the weekend by promoting the texting
program during its playoff broadcasts.

Spearheaded by the State Department, in
conjunction with Colorado-based mobile technology firm mGive, the effort raised
$5 million in its first day, breaking the previous one-day record of about
$450,000, according to The Washington Post.

Related Links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/us/19charity.html

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2010/01/a_record_22_million_has.html

http://www.redcross.org