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Be sure and also check out some of the excerpts from the interview.
Jocelyn: Ron, let's start from the beginning. What's the difference between SMS/text and the Mobile Web?
Ron: SMS is true to its label. It stands for Short Message Service and allows friends, family, colleagues - anyone - to send text messages between mobile phones. SMS is everywhere! There are estimates that SMS has 90% market penetration. It's a super easy and fast way to communicate.
The Mobile Web is simply a website on your phone. It allows you to use a browser to look at a particular website that’s been formatted for your smart phone or web-enabled feature-phone. We estimate that 65% of the market is web-enabled.
The Mobile Web is a MUCH more attractive option for nonprofits.
I think that in the future we will see a decline in text adoption for nonprofits and a rise in nonprofit adoption of the Mobile Web.
Jocelyn: What is the cost to invest in mobile?
Ron: To do SMS/text giving you'll need to invest $13,000 to $25,000. There are also recurring fees of approximately 1/3 of the initial set up cost. This covers licensing of short codes and key words, as well as the service fee for the number of messages to be sent.
Mobile websites will run you $5,000 to $30,000 depending on what you are trying to achieve. There are recurring costs as well, such as maintenance and hosting.
The good news is that increased competition is making it more accessible to develop a mobile site. I've seen multi-media packages, just for fundraising, that are coming down to $1,000 or less.
Jocelyn: Ron, According to New Directions, "over 50% of nonprofits are disappointed with their [mobile giving] fundraising results." Why is mobile fundraising still such a challenge for most nonprofits?
Ron: I think there are two key reasons.
That said, mobile is revving up like no other technology before. According to The Truth About Mobile Donations by Jenifer Snyder in Mobile Marketer,
Three years after text-based giving first became available, the mobile donation fundraising channel has already raised more than 30 times as many dollars as the online channel did when it was in its infancy.
You can read Jocelyn's full blog post here.