SMS is rapidly emerging as a new means to quickly and easily fund relief efforts after a disaster. In the 36 hours since earthquakes ravaged Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, Americans have used their mobile phones to donate more than $4 million to the Red Cross International Relief Fund to help emergency efforts, setting a new record for short code-based charitable contributions. There’s only one problem: it can take as long as month before those relief organizations see those funds.
Short codes were original designed for commercial transactions that had no time urgency attached to them. An SMS aggregator brokers the transaction. Then the carrier collects the payment at the end of a billing cycle and pays the recipient. In an emergency situation such as the Haiti crisis, though, non-profits need those donations immediately, the first 72 hours being critical for rescuing survivors and treating the critically injured. At least one operator, however, is looking into revamping its SMS settlement system to ensure much faster payments in crisis situations.
Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ, NYSE:VOD) spokesman Jeffrey Nelson said typically Verizon pays the two aggregating organizations, The Mobile Giving Foundation and MGive, on a monthly basis, just like its other SMS brokers. But considering the sheer amount of donations coming in–$1 million from 100,000 VZW subscribers so far–and the immediacy of the crisis, Verizon is trying to find a way of circumventing the usual payment process to get the funds to charities earlier.
“Once the immediate crunch of customers texting donations is over, Verizon Wireless will investigate ways to expedite payment to the mobile giving organizations for donations pledged by our customers,” Nelson said in an e-mail. “We all understand the importance of actual dollars getting to provide relief.”
For a partial list of relief agencies and the short codes that can be used to donate to them, see this previous blog post.