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Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

redcross.org

51–58 of 58 posts

Re: Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

#51
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do, last time I checked: """ The following organizations are accepting SMS donations in the US only: * SMS text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross relief efforts """

Does anyone know if SMS donations via skype work?

SMS donations are billed to your cell phone plan, so it only works on AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile

Re: Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

#52

has this method of collection been tried before? if not I'm guessing this is an untapped goldmine for the right entrepreneur: set up charities with simpler donation vectors.

It's about 2 years old. It's regulated by the Mobile Giving Foundation - http://mobilegiving.org/ The interesting thing here is that the carriers have agreed to pass your full donation amount to the charity, they don't take a cut.

Re: Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

#53
post #11
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, think that one through: if your advertisement says "Text 12345 to 45678 to donate $10 to the Red Cross", and you do so, and then your itemized cellphone bill says "Red Cross: $20", what is your reaction likely to be? Merchants foot the bill for transaction costs to encourage transaction volume. It is the same reason I quote my prices as $29.95 not "$29.95 plus whatever your credit card costs me to process."

i've already seen a non-red cross ad for the exact same thing, except $5 for hati, and the ad specifically stated transaction and standard data rates are added on top. looking for the ad now. edit: http://twitter.com/RedCross/status/7720590281 edit2: beatten

The only transaction and data rates are your sms send/receive costs. You send 2 SMS's and they send you 2 SMS's in total.

Re: Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

#54
post #42
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CEO pay means nothing. What matters is how much good they do per dollar. I'm sure the amount of money they receive each year is available somewhere, and they'll be happy to tell you what they've accomplished with it. Compare that to other organizations instead of assuming they're ineffective because they think it's worthwhile to pay their CEO well. The magnitude of CEO pay in the private sector is similarly a non-iss…

You're right that CEO pay doesn't mean that much in the scheme of things especially if they increase the effectiveness of the organization, but it's an issue that concerns people who make a lot less and are deciding where they should donate their hard earned dollars. http://www.slate.com/id/2220596 Non-profits also use their allure of helping others to recruit and often pay rank and file employees less than market ra…

I suspet the CEO is getting a lower percentae of market rate than the average doctor working for the red cross.

Re: Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

#55
post #37

BEFORE you RT that RedCross donation message or donate any cash yourselves... please consider. Red Cross is a giant beast of a company. It is $600,000,000 in debt. It has ridiculous overhead. As fellow hackers... We're all trying to build startups/ideas because we think big companies are missing something... that we have a better way to do things... that we can build a better product. If you want to help Haiti. Give…

You can text DOB to 90999 and $5 goes to Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders). Surely we can all agree they're okay.

MSF runs some of the only free medical centers in Haiti -- if you look at the news stories coming in about the injured, they tend to be from or near MSF facilities.

The Red Cross and UNICEF and other large charities are great, but it's definitely worth remembering that organizations like MSF have been on the ground in Haiti since before the quake.

Re: Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

#57
post #14

Amazon also has a donation button on their home page for Mercy Corps to help victims of the Haiti earthquake. http://www.amazon.com/

Given the demographics here, perhaps this might be of interest: Jimmy Jean-Louis, who plays "The Haitian" on the TV series, Heroes, is actually from Haiti (and has family affected by the quake) he runs a charity called Hollywood Unites for Haiti: http://www.hufh.org/

(I know little about the charity beyond what I read on its website but, again, thought it might be of interest to people here).

Related (via reddit.com): http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/TV/01/13/jimmy.louis.haiti/?...

Re: Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

#58
post #45
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Red Cross CEO earns $565,000 in salary. What's interesting is that this is higher than the CEO cap the Obama administration placed on for-profit companies which received bailout money. The Red Cross received $100 million in bailout money. http://blog.charitynavigator.org/2009/02/non-profit-ceo-pay-... http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary...

Upthread, it's reported the Red Cross has $3.5 billion in assets and $1.8 billion in liabilities. Managing an institution of that size, you don't want to skimp on executive talent, or you can lose a lot more than $565K in the blink of an eye. And, the current CEO probably made a lot more when she was in the private sector (at Fidelity Investments and AT&T).

Too big to exist in the realm of charity.

No thanks, I won't feed that inefficient monster.

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