Texting for Haiti

Instant gratification. It is one of the biggest gripes about Generation Now. They don’t understand delayed gratification. They have to see the immediate impact of their actions. They just can't wait. But instant gratification has been the vital key to raising money for Haitian relief. Old calls for help asked us to write a check and drop it in the mail. More recently we could call the number on the screen and provide our credit card number to donate to a worthy cause. That took too long too many people were not willing to take the time. But things have changed. Almost immediately after the earthquake in Haiti, a nonprofit called the Mobile Giving Foundation (http://mobilegiving.org/), set up a service that allowed users to give to Haitian relief by texting “HAITI” to the phone number 90999. For every text, the users cell phone will be charged $10 with the proceeds going to Red Cross Haitian relief. By last weekend, over $8M had been received via this system. Why is it so popular? It is easy and quick. Instant gratification. So impatience isn’t really a bad thing – if you know someone is in need.