Haiti Earthquake Relief via Text
Posted by Mark Jablonowski, on 01/13/2010
I have been very impressed with the power of Twitter and micro-giving through text messages today. After the 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti yesterday there has been an outpouring of support on the popular social networks. Many of the trending topics on Twitter today gave people instructions how to use their cell phone to make a small donation to the relief efforts.
Donating is easy as sending one of the following texts. The donation will show up on your normal phone bill.
One of the popular services was set up by musician Wyclef Jean. To donate $5 to his fund, text "Yele" to 501501. The American Red Cross has also set up a SMS shortcode to allow micro-giving. You can donate $10 to the Red Cross by texting "HAITI" to 90999. According to Jared Cohen's Twitter account, as of mid-day today, the shortcode for the American Red Cross had already pulled in $500,000 in donations.
Please consider a donation to help the Haitian rescue and recovery efforts.
Update: Jared Cohen is now reporting that the 90999 shortcode is responsible for more than 1.5 million dollars in donations. This means that more than 150,000 people have donated to the Red Cross via text message in under 24 hours.
