Partners with Case Western Reserve University and Blue Sky Bridge Child & Family Advocacy Center to offer text to pledge services
Online PR News – 24-March-2012 –Gnosis Media Group, a digital PR firm in the Greater NYC area, has been developing a text message donation service that has gained significant interest from nonprofits around the nation. The firm has sought to offer an effective alternative to conventional short code or SMS fundraising technology. Its service, said firm officials, fills a much-needed gap in the market.
“Startup, small and medium-sized nonprofits are just simply not being served by text to donate providers,” said Barbara Bryant, chief of operations for Gnosis Media Group. “Our market research has found that most of the text donation providers are over-priced, have too much redtape, impose too many rules and restrictions. And what’s worse, many of them won’t even deal with nonprofits which don’t generate over $500K in revenue per year.”
Nonprofits have turned a keen eye toward Gnosis Media Group since the firm unveiled its text to pledge service late last year – and not just from solo, startup social entrepreneurs, either.
“We’ve recently signed text-to-donate contracts for two nationally recognized not-for-profit organizations,” Bryant said. “Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and Blue Sky Bridge Child & Family Advocacy Center of Boulder, Colorado.”
Case Western Reserve University is one of the top biomedical research and development universities in the world. The University is associated with 16 Nobel Laureates, and is consistently a Top 50 school, according to the U.S.News & World Report’s college rankings.
Blue Sky Bridge is one of the most influential family advocacy nonprofits in Colorado. The center provides support services to child victims of physical and sexual abuse and non-offending family members.
“Blue Sky Bridge has an operating budget over 1 million; helps children and families across Boulder County; has even been endorsed by state Sen. Brandon Schaffer; but, they can’t qualify for many of the more traditional SMS fundraising services out there,” Bryant explained.
“Does that make any sense to you? Why should only the Red Crosses and United Ways have access to text donation services?” Bryant asked.
A major University like Case Western might qualify on the basis of annual revenue, but they would face a different set of problems. Often text to donate contracts can take weeks, or even months, to get approval, and these text donation contracts tend to be lengthy and confusing. Moreover, many of the cell phone donation providers charge set up fees and monthly subscription fees reaching easily into the hundreds of dollars per month.