Mobile marketing service provider Telescope Inc. included an SMS call-to-action for mobile giving in its holiday email greeting.

The company asked recipients of the email to text the keyword GIVE to short code 55355 to make a donation to the Thriving Talents Children’s Home, an orphanage in Kenya. The email blast went out Dec. 17.

“The strategy behind this mobile initiative was to engage and interact with our clients and friends this holiday season by generating interest in an important charity with which we have partnered,” said Jason George, CEO of Telescope, Los Angeles. “This has been a successful and exciting year for Telescope, and we wanted to celebrate by giving back.

“As our specialty is in driving participation for our media clients we thought that we could channel this participation into a charitable cause,” she said.

Telescope provides participation television and mobile marketing services for media and corporate clients.

Giving back via mobile
Thriving Talents Children’s Home is a Kenyan orphanage that houses 150 children.

With every text to the short code 55355 that includes the keyword GIVE, Telescope said it would make a donation to help the orphanage with its goal to generate sustainable revenue.

Mr. George said the money donated will assist in purchasing livestock to produce milk and eggs, not only to feed the children but to also sell to the community.

For the holiday campaign, Telescope invited clients, partners, vendors and friends of the company to participate in its charitable initiative.

Mobile giving presents opportunities
Telescope plans to launch a mobile donation service with its partner Mobile Messenger. Mr. George said the service will let consumers securely donate to their favorite causes using their mobile phone as the billing mechanism.

Mr. George said mobile provides the opportunity to create a very simple and easily understood call-to-action and mobile enables consumers and marketers the ability to interact, right now, from wherever they are.

One of the key features of mobile is its ability to act as a payment mechanism without the need for a lengthy credit card input and authorization process, Mr. George said.

“Specifically, mobile giving will enable nonprofits to add a direct mechanic to any display media they utilize – TV advertising, Outdoor, etcetera  – for consumers to donate to their cause right then,  without the need to pull their credit card out,” Mr. George said.

“We based our campaign on the notion that with an easy 15 seconds, you can contribute to someone else’s life,” he said. “As seen in the success of our campaign, if people don’t have time to spare, then it is in the hands of the marketer to spare them the time.”