Top Carriers Speed Mobile Donations to Japan
Major wireless carriers said they'll act as quickly as possible to transfer mobile text donations targeted to Japanese relief efforts. In a letter Friday to the CEOs of the four top carriers, Senate Commerce Committee member Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., urged acceleration of the mobile donation process, which can take 30 to 90 days because money isn’t sent until customers pay their monthly bills.
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While many consumers think their mobile donations “are being rushed to the affected area, the reality is it takes quite a bit longer,” Boxer said in her letter. Carriers expedited donations after the Haiti earthquake and previous disasters, she said. “In light of the scale of destruction in Japan, American wireless carriers should again immediately remit mobile donations to organizations conducting relief efforts on the ground.” A Change.org petition set up by a Boxer constituent in San Francisco was in part the impetus for the letter. The petition by Masaya Uchino, at http://xrl.us/mobiledonations, urges carriers to immediately process donations.
Verizon Wireless will begin expediting donations starting Monday or Tuesday, said the company’s spokesman. The company will send the money to charity upon receiving a text-message pledge, he said. That means the carrier could lose money if a pledge is made and the customer doesn’t pay the bill. AT&T has already started speeding mobile donations texted to the Red Cross, the carrier’s spokeswoman said. “We're dramatically speeding up the normal procedure so the money gets to the Red Cross in a matter of days,” she said.
Sprint Nextel is “working with our partners and relief organizations to be as responsive as possible to meet current and future needs emanating from this disaster,” a Sprint spokeswoman said. T-Mobile didn’t comment before our deadline, but in a press release earlier this week said $10 mobile donations “will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts."
"It takes time to move cash from one pocket to another,” and carriers should not be accused of “hoarding cash” or obstructing donations, said Mobile Giving Foundation CEO Jim Manus. The nonprofit processes donations to charities for all carriers in the U.S. and Canada. Everyone wants to move the cash along as quickly as possible, but it has to be done in a responsible fashion that accounts for accidental donations and other potential errors, he said. To ensure pledges are backed by cash, no money is normally exchanged until a donating consumer pays his or her monthly bill, Manus said. Depending on when the consumers originally signed up for wireless service, it could take weeks for the bill to arrive, he said. At that point, the carrier quickly transfers the donation to a company like Mobile Giving, which in turn sends it on to the charity, he said.