Yesterday, we noted that $5 million had be raised in donations for Haiti though text messaging in the U.S. alone. Today, that number surpassed $10 million, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has announced. Perhaps more importantly, some of the big players involved in the donations are making moves to make sure the money gets to Haiti faster.
As some people noted in the comments yesterday, there had been talk of 90 day delays for this money donated via text to be released to the various organizations helping out in Haiti. Since then, a number of the companies have committed to giving the money immediately. Verizon, for example, is giving its share (of the then $9 million), $2.98 million, immediately to the American Red Cross. Sprint, meanwhile, is giving 80% of the $1.2 million it has raised so far immediately. AT&T has apparently raised the most so far with $4.2 million (of the larger $10 million) and is also thinking about ways to get the money to Haiti faster.
All of this money has been raised with the help of mGive simply by people using their cellphones to text HAITI to the number 90999. Doing so will automatically donate $10 to the Red Cross, which will be added on to your bill at the end of the month. But that’s not the only way to give over text message. Here’s a list of many of the ways to text to help Haiti:
- Text HAITI to 90999 to donate $10 to the American Red Cross
- Text HAITI to 25383 to donate $5 to International Rescue Committee
- Text HAITI to 45678 to donate $5 to the Salvation Army in Canada
- Text YELE to 501501 to donation $5 to Yele
- Text RELIEF to 30644 to get automatically connected to Catholic Relief Services and donate money with your credit card
- Text HAITI to 864833 to donate $5 to The United Way
- Text CERF to 90999 to donate $5 to The United Nations Foundation
- Text DISASTER to 90999 to donate $10 to Compassion International
[photo: flickr/ydhsu]