New text-to-donate service enables non-profits of any size to access mobile donations
REDWOOD CITY, CA and CALGARY, AB - October 19, 2010 – Obopay, Inc. (http://www.obopay.com/) and Benevity Social Ventures, Inc. (www.benevity.org), today announced an alliance to power a new text-to-donate offering that enables mobile donations and receipting for any registered charity in the United States. This innovative solution combines Obopay’s instant mobile payment technology with expansive donation management, tax receipting and corporate matching functionality provided through Benevity.
This partnership enables consumers to make charitable donations quickly and conveniently on their mobile devices by texting a keyword established by a charity to a shortcode number assigned to the charity by Obopay. Users are then directed to a mobile payment site where they can make donations to their chosen charities and receive electronic tax receipts. The new mobile giving solution enables charities to collect much higher amounts – up to hundreds of dollars – and provides the non-profit with much faster access to the funds, compared to other text-to-donate offerings that have been limited to $5 and $10 amounts and have taken over 90 days to get funds to the cause. Benevity provides the back-end platform that facilitates donation processing, aggregation of micro-donations, distribution of funds and tax receipt capabilities. Future phases of the service will enable corporate matching of donations by companies and their partners.
“Crisis relief to Haiti put mobile donations on the map in America, but until now mobile donations have only been available for a handful of the largest non-profits and executed through carrier billing, which places limits on the amounts that can be donated and delays the receipt of funds,” said Carol Realini, CEO of Obopay. “The lag in access to funds can be significant and many of the 1.2 million charities in the US are smaller organizations that are looking for a way to bring the ease of mobile donations to their supporters in a cost-effective way. Our new text-to-donate offering, which can work with the Benevity micro-donation platform as its giving engine, meets these needs and meaningfully expands the market and speed for making and accepting mobile donations.”
Obopay’s new text-to-donate service expands mobile donations as a fundraising option to any registered charity in the United States. It provides charities with quick and easy set up with rapid response capabilities and gets funds to them faster by eliminating the need for donors to receive and pay wireless bills before donations are collected.
We’re excited to be helping Obopay introduce this innovative new service,” said Bryan de Lottinville, CEO of Benevity. “As personal and corporate philanthropy recovers following the recession, mobile donations and campaigns will have increasing importance. We’re delighted to be part of a new solution that will provide companies and consumers with an easier way to give to causes that resonate with them. We’re also thrilled about making this functionality accessible to all charities and consumers, regardless of their size or the amount they can donate.”
Obopay has also added this new text-to-donate solution to its portfolio of mobile banking and payment services for banking and telecom providers in the US and abroad. Banks and other companies can now offer text-to-donate capabilities under their own brand so they can provide their customers an easy way to support charitable causes that matter to them as part of existing customer experiences.
Consumers can try this service now and make a charitable donation to a great cause, by texting any of the following keywords to 48510:
PAKISTAN to donate to the Mobilink Foundation (www.mobilinkfoundation.org) in support of relief for victims of the recent flood in Pakistan GORILLA to donate to the Conservation Through Public Health (www.ctph.org) in support of efforts to save endangered mountain gorillas in Africa KIDS to donate to the Obopay Bay Area Kids Fund to support California Bay Area children’s charities including: YMCA of San Francisco (www.ymca.net) Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco (www.kidsclub.org) East Palo Alto Kids Foundation (www.epak.org) Hope Flight Foundation (www.hopeflightfoundation.org) Playworks Education Energized (www.playworks.org) HEALTH to donate to the Obopay Health Fund in support of health and health research efforts including: American Brain Tumor Association (www.abta.org) American Kidney Fund (www.kidneyfund.org) The Diabetes Action Research and Education Foundation (www.daref.org) Parkinsons Disease Foundation (www.pdf.org) Lupus Research Institute (www.lupusresearchinstitute.org) About Benevity Benevity has developed North America’s first embeddable micro-donation platform, enabling socially responsible businesses to engage their customers, employees and corporate partners in optional charitable giving on their terms. Benevity lets companies integrate user-directed, tax receiptable donations and corporate matching programs into their existing transaction environments, using their own brands and systems. The Benevity platform helps companies build authentic and impactful cause marketing, workplace giving and other social responsibility initiatives that increase engagement, brand differentiation and return on social and community investment. To find out more or to request a demo, visit us at www.benevity.org.
About Obopay Founded in 2005, Obopay, Inc (http://www.obopay.com) offers financial institutions an open, trusted, secure and interoperable mobile payments service by transforming any mobile phone into a convenient and easy way to send and receive money. The company’s Mobile Money for Banks offers bank-branded, account-centric mobile service quickly, painlessly and at low deployment cost. Obopay’s broad-based offering addresses the needs of consumers and businesses around the world by providing a ubiquitous service that delivers value, empowers lives and improves opportunity for merchants both in the physical and virtual worlds. The company provides innovative mobile money services making it easy for mobile phone users to securely send and receive money, top-up their mobile, buy online, buy via mobile, pay bills and pay small businesses. Obopay believes the power is in the network and has established partnerships that include Nokia, MasterCard, Citibank, AT&T, Verizon, Essar, Yes Bank in India, Blackberry and Societe Generale. Global headquarters are in Redwood City, CA with operations in India.