Cymba opens up mobile regular giving service to more charities
Howard Lake | 28 August 2012 | News
Mobile marketing specialist Cymba is rolling out its mobile regular giving service Connected to all charities, following a pilot project. Launched in January 2011, it has raised over £275,000 for charities including Christian Aid, NSPCC and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Connected is an SMS text message-based platform that allows mobile phone users to set up and control donations to charity. Cymba describe it as a mobile-based alternative to direct debit.
Charity supporters can use it to set up a regular donation by sending an SMS text to a short code number. If they wish to skip a monthly donation after signing up, they can do so simply be sending a text message.
Cymba has worked to meet the standards and code of practice set by PhonepayPlus, which regulates premium rate phone numbers and services in the UK. The company claims that it is “the first system of its kind to support [the] SKIP™ regulatory approved feature”.
Payments are debited from available funds on PAYG mobiles or will show on a contract phone’s monthly statement.
Charities can use the platform to send images, video and other messages to supporters’ mobile devices.
Cymba claim that Connected has achieved a low rate of donor attrition, with as many as “90 per cent of supporters using Connected still making donations after 14 month”s.
Nevil Coleman, Director of Cymba, says: “We wanted to develop a product that took full advantage of the mobile technology that has become available, while placing some of the control over donations back in the hands of supporters. We have had a positive response to Connected from charities and their supporters since it was made available in limited form last year and we are looking forward to making it available to more charities and fundraising agencies who want to offer digital-savvy donors a new way to give.”
www.cymba.co.uk
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.