Micro-donations: Africare among first NGOs to develop iPhone App

Updated - Friday 18 September 2009

Africare is using iPhones and other social networks to make it easy to make small donations. They are part of the NGO’s new marketing campaign Pass It On!, which highlights stories of people overcoming major issues in Africa such as unsafe drinking water, food insecurity, and the growing number of AIDS orphans.

Pass It On! combines bus posters and back-lit Metro dioramas in Washington, DC, where Africacare is based, with “viral” social media such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and the Internet, along with one of the very first iPhone applications approved for non-profits. The Africare iPhone app, available for download in October 2009, includes a photo gallery, video and a “Click to Donate” button, from which a person can use his or her phone bill to contribute. To date, only three such applications have been created.

The Pass It On! campaign will use the new iPhone app to promote 16 featured individuals whose stories can be "passed on” to others through video, social networks, e-mail and many hand-held devices. A water story will feature in October 2010.

Related news: Fundraising: YouTube non-profit collects US$ 10,000 for clean water in a single day, Source Weekly, 28 Apr 2009

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