Text a Bible and other micro-philanthropy trends…

Text a Bible.

Megan just forwarded a fascinating press release from Open Doors USA. They’ve introduced a $5 offer to provide a Bible to someone in a persecuted church around the world. The creative twist? You can text to give $5 to provide that Bible.

The long-term value of text donations.

One major question we continue to ask ourselves is what is the value of a $5 text donation? Our traditional fundraising research shows us that donors who give low dollar amounts (such as $5), have a commensurately low lifetime donor value. Often, we’ve found that the cost to cultivate (e.g., mail, email, call, etc.) these donors exceeds the donation income they provide. In other words, we end up LOSING money in cultivating donors who give very small amounts.

This is a real concern for the long-term viability of text donations in their current state. The good news is in the long term, mobile technology will progress to the point where it will be very easy to give that $50 gift just as safely and easily.

Micro-philanthropy as a growing trend.

Whatever our concerns may be right now about the long-term value of $5 text donations, one thing is for sure, and that is that micro-philanthropy is a growing trend.

Micro-philanthropy is a part of a concept I’ve been calling micro-engagement. It’s basically the movement in our culture to reduce things to bite-size chunks.

Examples of micro-engagement include:

• Micro-blogging (Twitter, Tumblr, etc.)
• Micro-fundraising (e.g., Text $5 to 12345, or Send this email and $1 will be donated in your name, etc.)
• Micro-volunteering (the capability to use technology to volunteer in very small chunks of time, say, while waiting in an airport)

Are you using micro-engagement in any way?

Are there other examples of micro-engagement that you think I’m missing?

Comment away!