January 15, 2010

Day 9 - Donate to Charity in a New Way

Date: January 15th, 2010

With the rise of internet communications, a lot of new and creative ways to donate to charity have emerged.  The newest charitable fad to pick up steam?  Text message donations.  For today I decided to donate $10 to the relief effort in Haiti.  I would prefer for my new experiences to last more than 15 seconds, as a general rule, but today I'm pleased that it was so quick and easy.

Why?  Because it shows how easy it is for people to make a difference.  $10 from me will help bring much needed supplies and personnel to Haiti as the people get back on their feet.  That being said - $10 from me, $10 from you, and $10 from ten of your friends will do a whole heck of a lot more.

As with any new technology, it is important to be careful of spammers and scammers so pick the number you send your money to carefully.  A list of reputable organizations and the number to send your message to can be found here.  For the most part, the major cell phone carriers have waived the text message fee for people using texts to give donations.  Sprint seems to be the only carrier insisting on profiting from other people's generosity.

I would highly recommend making a text message donation.  It only takes 15 seconds and a cell phone to make a difference.

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