We received this message yesterday from our friend Steinar at MAF Norge:
Our pilots and logistical experts are co-ordinating flights to bring relief to hard-to-reach areas inaccessible by road. The helicopters are carrying medical personnel, relief workers and vital supplies to reach the most vulnerable communities. Women and children make up a large percentage of these villages. We are working in close partnership with more than 25 groups, including the UK's Department for International Development (DFID), Operation Mobilisation and the Nepali Government. The most critical need in Nepal is shelter from the monsoon rain, clean water and rice/food. But also Medical evacuation.
The SMS function in CiviCRM made it possible for us to make an appeal to our network of supporters as soon as we knew the need for MAFs support in Nepal. This made it possible for us to raise hundreds of thousands NOK even before we had sent out any mailings or had any adverts. The cost in fundraising through SMS is also very attractive as it is so easy, quick and affordable.
CiviCRM processed approx. €15 000 in 2 hours time, in sms donations to enable helicopter support in Nepal for MAF Norway. On Thursday and Friday last week we sent out 2500 sms each day in between 19.00 and 21.30. That is approx. 1000sms/hour. At the same time, people responded by sending a sms to give a donation. An sms-autoreply then immediately sends a thank-you, and actually charging the money.
When MAF Norway started using CiviCRM, one of the persons we immediately fell in love with, was Bruce-in-the-box.https://civicrm.org/blogs/pdelbar/bad-news-2344-new-payments-your-bank-account This man could reduce backoffice working to only a minimum, leaving staff only to take care of the new ones... Thanks to development done by CiviCoop, Bruce-in-the-box also handles our sms. We now have received approx. €30 000 by sms, and our back office staff is not reporting sick...!
SMS campaign using CiviCRM is a great success!
