mGive's Brad Blanken

How did mGive become one of the key players in the Haiti relief effort? Our founder, James Eberhard, was on a technology delegation in Pakistan with [U.S. special envoy]Richard Holbrooke. It was 4:30 in the morning. The State Department called and woke James up and said, "There's been an earthquake in Haiti. Can we turn up a text relief effort?" We called the Red Cross, and within an hour, we had the program up and running. By the time we woke up, we'd raised $170,000.

How does mGive make money? The cell carriers drive 100% of the donations to us, and we funnel them to the non-profits, which pay us a monthly fee [anywhere from $400 to $1,500, plus a $500 set-up fee] If you compare it to direct mail or online solicitations, the mobile channel is still a very efficient means to collect money. In the case of Haiti, we've been donating our services-charities are receiving 100% of every dollar donated.

What were the challenges of bringing this technology to North America? It all comes down to culture. I was part of the team that built inter-carrier messaging back in 2000. In January, 2001, there were 30,000 inter-carrier messages. By June, 2005, there were six billion. Now, we have a mass audience of people texting. But we live in a world of opportunists-people looking to capitalize on bad situations. Spammers. Con artists. So people have had to build their comfort level [with the technology]

How will this change philanthropy? I had one woman say to me, "I don't have to take out my chequebook, I don't have to wait until I get home to donate-I can just send a text." At 5:30 this morning, we had thousands of people donating. Last night, LL Cool J came on during a commercial break for NCIS: Los Angeles with a call to action: "Hey, the people of Haiti need our help, so text 'Haiti' to 90999." We're excited that there's so much money being directed to aid. We're not celebrating, because the source of this sea change in mobile has been on the backs of the people in Haiti. But thousands of Haitians have been helped, thanks to the donations done through mobile text.

Is Haiti your biggest campaign? By far and away-we did $6 million-plus in one day for the Red Cross. It's astounding, but it's still only about 1% of the population. We're just scratching the surface.

What's the next application of mGive's technology? Donating is just one piece of the game. In Pakistan, we're helping the government exchange information with local communities-it's been wildly successful there. We're launching a program later this year in Mexico that will allow people to anonymously report crimes to law enforcement. A number of initiatives we're working on with governments are going to be game-changing. There are really interesting things people can do to rally a base of people.

When are you coming to Canada? We're working with all the carriers in Canada and expect to deploy the service in the next couple of months. It's a more community-based approach up there. There's still competition, but the carriers get together and make these inter-carrier programs. In the States, Verizon doesn't talk to AT&T. But I call up there, and the Bell guy just got off the phone with the guy from Rogers.