Charity SMS Campaigns – WTF
These premium rated SMS numbers that you can send a message to and donate a certain amount to a charity is bullshit. I initially thought it’s a wonderful idea to get people to donate to charities. I mean, what’s easier than sending an SMS? People just don’t want to give money any more or go to the banks to do a payment for them.
How much of your money is really landing up at the charities though? Cellphone companies take between 50-60% of whatever money is recieved on the SMS number. That means when you donate R10, R4 of that is going the charity and R6 of that is going to enrich the lives of the cellphone company owners. If you donate R30, only R12 is going to the charity.
What’s worse is that you pay a setup cost, anything from R900 – R2500 and a monthly fixed fee of around R250 to have this number. The only people making money with this are the cellphone companies. We’re already making them rich with the high cellphone phone call rates we are charged, now they are basically stealing money from charities as well.
The next time you want to give money, rather keep your spare change and drop it in the many containers that are available around the city.