Marketing and fundraising through mobile phones: New strategies for non profit organizations and charities

This position paper highlights new scenarios for mobile communication technologies in fundraising activities of non profit organizations. Over the past two decades, ICT and the Internet have dramatically changed individuals´ behaviours, including their approach to donation. New expectations arose on the possibility of “online” fundraising activities and not only computers are determining this change but also the potential of (smart) phones must be acknowledged. Mobile fundraising projects have been implemented both at global and local level to support various causes such as: natural disasters, poverty, diseases (cancer, HIV, sclerosis), wildlife, human rights. This is a positioning paper whose objectives are the following: (a) to define the mobile technological scenarios and their trends of diffusion for fundraising by identifying some best practices at an international level; (b) to assess the mobile fundraising initiatives in the Italian non profit sector.