OpenMarket drives mobile donations for Disasters Emergency Committee Philippines Typhoon Appeal
Howard Lake | 3 December 2013 | Newswire
OpenMarket drives mobile donations for Disasters Emergency Committee Philippines Typhoon Appeal
- DEC Philippines Typhoon Appeal uses the OpenMarket Mobile Engagement Platform for mobile fundraising using Premium SMS
- OpenMarket provides unique SMS-powered Gift Aid registration tool to boost value of donations
- Early indications suggest 60% of donors opted into Gift Aid
London, UK – November 28 2013 – The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), the umbrella organisation for 14 UK humanitarian aid agencies, is using the leading mobile engagement solution provider OpenMarket to drive mobile fundraising for its Philippines Typhoon Appeal. OpenMarket’s Mobile Engagement Platform is powering the appeal’s mobile donation channel, which has raised over £1M in mobile donations since the campaign launched on November 12th.
DEC launched its Philippines Typhoon Appeal to raise money to help the millions of people affected or left homeless by the devastating Typhoon Haiyan that struck the country on November 8th 2013. The OpenMarket platform processes incoming donations made using Premium SMS (PSMS). Donations are made by texting DONATE to 70000, a designated DEC short code. Donors then receive a PSMS confirming their donation. DEC also uses OpenMarket to engage with donors on an ongoing basis with opt-in SMS appeal updates and invitations to make further donations.
In addition, DEC uses SMS to invite donors to register for Gift Aid, which increases the value of donations by 25%. OpenMarket is the only provider in the market that enables donors to register for Gift Aid using SMS. Donors are invited to register for Gift Aid by texting back their name, first line of address and postcode. The Mobile Engagement Platform checks that the format of the details is accurate and then sends a confirmation message. Other providers typically direct donors to websites: this disrupts the registration and can potentially obstruct the Gift Aid process entirely, especially for websites that are not optimised for viewing on a mobile phone and when impulsive donors are on the move. Using SMS for Gift Aid continues to convert interest in about two-thirds of donors.
OpenMarket has been DEC’s partner of choice for mobile engagement since its Pakistan Floods Appeal in August 2010. OpenMarket also worked with the DEC to deliver the mobile campaign for its East Africa Crisis Appeal in July 2011 and the Syria Crisis Appeal in 2013.
“OpenMarket is one of our longest-standing fundraising partners and we’re thrilled to work with them again on this important appeal,” said Adil Husseini, Head of Fundraising at the DEC. “OpenMarket has consistently proven their ability to handle our sudden and highly demanding needs. We had less than 48-hours to launch a massive media campaign and once again OpenMarket did not fail to seamlessly deliver our mobile fundraising needs. “
The OpenMarket Mobile Engagement Platform processes billions of transactions worldwide each month for high-profile global brands, companies and organisations. Charities can use the Mobile Engagement Platform to build specific use-cases for both one-off and on-going donation and donor engagement. Most importantly, it is totally flexible to the charity’s unique needs.
“OpenMarket is a trusted mobile engagement partner of the DEC, and this relationship has built up over several years and over several successful projects,” said Adrian Sarosi, Head of Marketing for EMEA at OpenMarket. “The cost of implementing mobile donations is minimal and allows charities to spend less on face to face fundraising and call centres. The DEC’s use of SMS for its Philippines Typhoon Appeal reinforces the impact and value of mobile as an important fundraising mechanism.”
To support the DEC Philippines Typhoon Appeal with a £5 donation text DONATE to 70000.
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About DEC
The DEC brings 14 leading UK aid charities together in times of crisis: Action Aid, Age International, British Red Cross, CAFOD, Care International, Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide, Islamic Relief, Merlin, Oxfam, Plan UK, Save the Children, Tearfund and World Vision; all collectively raising money to reach those in need quickly.
About OpenMarket
OpenMarket, a subsidiary of Amdocs, powers mobile business. We provide a comprehensive set of mobile solutions for enterprises to engage and transact with their customers via their mobile devices. Clients depend on OpenMarket for our superior domain expertise, global scale, demonstrated performance, and industry leading reliability. OpenMarket’s intelligent, integrated platform provides deep mobile operator connections with global network reach. For more information, visit www.openmarket.com for more information.
About Amdocs
For 30 years, Amdocs has ensured service providers’ success and embraced their biggest challenges. To win in the connected world, service providers rely on Amdocs to simplify the customer experience, harness the data explosion, stay ahead with new services and improve operational efficiency. The global company uniquely combines a market-leading BSS, OSS and network control product portfolio with value-driven professional services and managed services operations. With revenue of $3.3 billion in fiscal 2013, Amdocs and its 20,000 employees serve customers in more than 70 countries.
For more information, visit Amdocs at www.amdocs.com.
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.