Charitable giving was at an all time high in 2012 in the U.S. This surprising news from Giving USA, a charity information resource, comes despite our current economic state. But I am all for helping out the less fortunate, so it’s still great to see this happening regardless of any individual’s motivation.
A unique new way many businesses are trying to spin the increase in charitable giving is by offering a portion of their collected funds to be donated on a person’s behalf. The mobile industry, with its highly competitive landscape, is cashing in on this with MVNO’s offering up donations on a customer’s behalf as a defining factor of their services.
One study in the U.K. actually found people would be willing to switch to an MVNO from their mobile provider, if they knew a portion of their bill would be going to a charity.
The market is being flooded with new entrants all fighting for the attention of new mobile customers looking to do good for charities while paying their monthly services.
GIV Mobile is one company already focusing on charitable giving. As a virtual provider of T-Mobile’s network, the company is able to provide prepaid options for wireless services and ensures customers are also picking a charity they have a connection with, and can feel pleased to be assisting with.
The good news with this company is that if you already have a GSM phone that works on the T-Mobile network, you don’t even need to buy a new phone to use the services. Simply purchase a SIM from GIV and start helping to make the lives of those less fortunate a little better.
For those in need of a GSM phone, the company currently offers an iPhone 5 or Nexus 4 for users.
In addition to tugging at the heart strings of customers, the company also puts emphasis on cost savings for users. I myself sometimes cringe at the rate I pay to have my mobile device connected each month. Even though I am on an unlimited plan (it’s the only option my provider offers for smartphones), who really will ever use all that data?
JD Power and Associates found that American families spend about $139 monthly, or about $1,670 a year on mobile phone usage - up 10 percent since 2009.
The "Wireless Waste Index" by Validas, a dashboard that shows monthly, quarterly and annual projections of wireless waste on smartphones in America, shows average customers are overspending with wireless waste costing consumers over $926 in 2012.
In addition to giving 8 percent of your monthly rate to a charity of your choice from the list of companies participating, GIV Mobile also offers a no-contract service and prepaid monthly plan. Customers can choose either $40 for 250MB of high speed data and unlimited talk, text, data, mms and even global texting. Or for $50 per month, users can have all the same unlimited features with 2GB of high speed data.
I had a chance to test out the service with a Nexus 4, and generally felt good that my month of service would also offer a percent to a charity of my choice.
First, setting up the phone took a few steps, including having to hop online and create an account to activate the SIM. Once services were matched up, I was able to begin using the service seamlessly.
The option to check my balance quickly via text proved valuable to ensure I always had minutes, which was a nice addition to the services.
To find out more about the company and how they came up with this idea, I recently caught up with senior vice president Omar Abhari, who noted that the importance of lowering customer bills while also offering them a chance to help give to a charitable cause, has always been a main focus for the company.
“We view the telecommunications service that we extend to our customers as a universal service that is also very personal. Similarly, we believe that people like to give and generally want to do good. Some time ago we figured that the best of both worlds would be to marry both concepts: the mobile phone and service, which is ubiquitous and personal at the same time, and giving to charity,” Abhari said. “Save money, save the world.”
To process the charitable donations, the company has a system in place that automatically takes 8 percent from the customer account once they have paid their bills and then payments are remitted to charities. While these tasks are done outside of the customers view, the company still keeps them in the know on an annual basis, when an accounting firm audits the donation procedure and information is made into a report that is available to customers.
In the future, Abhari said the company is working on offering members GIV-branded mobile phone devices and family plans as well as an extended action layer that will facilitate communication between members and non-profits.
Edited by
Alisen Downey
QUICK LINKS 
