The expansive reach of mobile phones—literally to the pocket of a huge number of individuals—gives nonprofits a whole new channel for fundraising and donor interaction.With convenience, security, anonymity and ease of interaction making smartphone fundraising an essential tool for nonprofits, here are 5 ways to raise money via smartphones.

Text Donations

One of the most prevalent methods for fundraising via smartphones is the text donation. Used often as a way to donate to relief efforts in the event of emergencies such as hurricanes and earthquakes, text Donations allow donors to text a key word or phrase to a designated number to pledge an amount of money to a cause. In turn, that amount is added to their phone bill and the charges are billed and payable to the donor’s Mobile service provider.

Donations by text message give your donors a convenient, secure, private and affordable way to donate funds, and give you an effective way to utilize the power and reach of the mobile channel in your fundraising efforts.

Website Donations

The percentage of traffic on the web that can be attributed to visitors on a mobile device is ever increasing,and it makes sense that nonprofits should make it easy to accept donations from this audience. Due to myriad factors like convenience and ease of interaction, fundraising on a mobile website goes hand-in-hand with ensuring that your website is mobile-friendly; something that should be of high priority to your organization.

With your mobile website, you will be able to accept funds just as you would with the desktop version of your website. Additionally, Mobile Donations have a unique advantage in a setting such as traditional walkathon-type events. Utilizing a mobile website allows you to sign up participants and collect donations on an event website, upload photos or personal messages regarding the event, and track donations. Additionally, it allows for participants themselves to track their pledges on the go and solicit more donations from friends and family.

Apps Sales

Another avenue to consider for mobile donations is the development of a mobile app. With a compelling narrative and great creative plan, you can overcome Apple and Google App Store commissions and high developmental cost to raise funds on a mobile app. At $1.99—a pretty typical price for a smartphone app—you can raise significant funds with a good mobile experience, letting your donors know that the proceeds from the sales of the apps go to a good cause.

In-app Sales

In addition to selling your mobile app, you can also solicit further donations, sell digital goods or offer added incentives from within your app. There are services to help you set in-app purchases up, such as Urban Airship. It is all part of creating an immersive, compelling mobile experience that benefits all parties involved.

Sponsored Apps

A growing trend in the fundraising world, partnerships between nonprofits and for-profit companies have driven the creation of apps that promote a business in exchange for a donation. Participating businesses give out personal rewards while your nonprofit receives a donation from the sponsor. Donations via sponsored apps are easy, have a low barrier to entry and offer incentives, and you really don’t need to know much about mobile technology to take advantage.

Accepting donations via mobile phones combines convenience, security, anonymity and a ton of networking and solicitation options, with a channel that can reach a large audience. That makes mobile donations a must for nonprofits going forward. Ranging from easy to complicated facilitation, mobile donations should become a necessity in the near future; the sooner your nonprofit masters mobile donation possibilities, the better.