Text donations for Haiti earthquake overwhelm Red Cross

Total donated via text messages totals $8 million; Red Cross says it's climbing fast

Text donations to Haiti earthquake relief may not constitute a miracle, but the American Red Cross says it is overwhelmed by the millions of $10 gifts it has received via mobile phone texting.

As of early today, the Red Cross said it had raised $8 million in $10 donations via text messages, and that it could raise millions more via that route over the long holiday weekend.

The simple donation process requires a mobile phone user with a texting account to text the word "Haiti" to 90999. A $10 donation will be automatically applied to their phone bill. Cell phone companies have agreed to forward 100% of the total generated in the program to the American Red Cross.

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Text donations to Haiti earthquake relief may not constitute a miracle, but the American Red Cross says it is overwhelmed by the millions of $10 gifts it has received via mobile phone texting.

As of early today, the Red Cross said it had raised $8 million in $10 donations via text messages, and that it could raise millions more via that route over the long holiday weekend.

The simple donation process requires a mobile phone user with a texting account to text the word "Haiti" to 90999. A $10 donation will be automatically applied to their phone bill. Cell phone companies have agreed to forward 100% of the total generated in the program to the American Red Cross.

"We honestly have no clue how much more to expect, but have been really surprised and overwhelmed by the amount of donations via texting," said Red Cross spokeswoman Carrie Housman in an interview today. The $8 million total raised by early Friday, less than three days after the earthquake ravaged Haiti, was "unheard of," she said. Half the total was raised in less than a day, she added.

"We never raised this much money with a mobile campaign, especially $10 at a time," Housman said, noting that smaller domestic mobile campaigns have been tried since 2008. The latest mobile fund-raising campaign, she said, "blows [those] results out of the water."

She attributed the latest response to the dire emergency, the closeness of Haiti to the U.S. and also the simplicity of donating via text.

"It's something that an average person can do -- and the $10 amount has been key. It's doable," she said. "A 10-year-old girl texted her donation and called to tell us and said she was planning to spread the word through her classmates. It was very emotional for her."

Housman said the campaign started early; it was set up just three hours after the first quake struck. The text-to-donate plan was spread through various means, including popular social networks Twitter and Facebook .

The cellular companies will transfer the funds to the Red Cross once donors pay their phone bills, which means the money might take 30 to 60 days to reach the Red Cross, Housman noted. Still, the Red Cross has already funneled some $10 million to Haiti relief, using cash on hand. The delayed funds will also come in handy as the island rebuilding effort will likely go on for years, Housman said.

The Red Cross texting effort is powered by Mobile Accord and the mGive Foundation, and is being coordinated with the U.S. State Department, according to the Red Cross Web site.

A map on the Red Cross Web site indicates that the largest number of text donations has come from populous states, including those near Haiti such as Texas and Florida.

Other texting relief efforts sponsored by the Clinton Foundation and musician Wyclef Jean are also underway. Officials from those groups could not be reached to comment. The Wyclef Jean effort calls for texting the word "Yele" to 501501 while the Clinton Foundation program calls for texting "Haiti" to 20222.