Pudsey fundraises with PayPal Mobile's Text 2 Give
Howard Lake | 19 October 2006 | News
BBC Children in Need’s campaign this year is using the new PayPal Mobile Payments service to handle donations by mobile phone. The campaign includes a chance to win a new Porsche Boxter S by simply texting a penny donation to the charity.
PayPal Mobile allows PayPal users to make payments and donations via their mobile phones. To send money by text users need first to activate their phone and link it to their online PayPal account.
Once activated users can make payments or donations. They can text a penny donation to enter the ‘Porsche for a Penny’ competition, and they can also make a donation to BBC Children in Need by texting ‘Pudsey’ followed by their gift amount to 64483 ‘Pudsey 1’ would trigger a £1 donation.
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Mobile donations generate an email receipt to the user’s account. The charity can also customise the thank you message and offer further options such as making a Gift Aid declaration or making regular payments.
PayPal Mobile’s Text 2 Give services are also being used by Oxfam this year in its OxfamUnwrapped catalogue.
“There are many other applications for charities,” Roy C. Vella, Head of Mobile Payments at PayPal Europe Ltd, told UK Fundraising. “Charity shops can sell 24 hours a day if the charity features PayPal Mobile short codes in its windows. Supporters at charity events can give instantly. Street posters, TV and radio ads can also ask for text donations.”
He encourages charities to start thinking about adding space on their current marketing and fundraising materials to include a short code and a call to give by phone.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.