Here's a copy/paste of the email:
Dear Alexandra,As more people text money to help the relief in Japan, we need to ask ourselves whether or not the money is actually getting to where it needs to be in a timely fashion. Although I think it's amazing that we can now donate money with just a click of our phone, is it really making a difference?
As devastating events hit Japan -- earthquake, tsunami, and now a possible nuclear catastrophe -- millions of us have sought to help, often by donating money to urgent relief efforts.
But if you donate via text message, your donations may take up to 90 days to get to the aid organizations that urgently need the money.
That's because mobile service providers like AT&T and Verizon have chosen not to release the donation money right away. Instead, the donations will only be transferred after the end of your next billing cycle, a process that can take up to three months. Tell the phone companies to stop delaying donations.
After the earthquake in Haiti, Change.org activists joined with activists around the world to ask phone companies to provide donations to the Red Cross immediately –– and the phone companies came through. So why are they delaying donations now?
Masaya Uchino, a Japanese-American law student in San Francisco, has started a petition on Change.org to ask AT&T, Verizon, and other major phone service providers not to delay much needed donations from reaching the organizations doing relief work in Japan.
Please join Masaya and other Change.org members in asking the phone companies to stop delaying donations to Japan:
http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-delay-on-donations-to-japan-2?alert_id=YXcTCsunOA_HkQCJTiSFK&me=aa
Thanks for taking action,
- Weldon and the Change.org team
Allie-
ReplyDeleteI experienced frustrations too when donating via text message to the Red Cross's Help for Haiti Fund. Although they promoted the campaign on TV through commercials and nighttime news broadcasts, they failed to say how long it would take for the money to get to where we wanted it to.
Although the time constraint is frustrating, I still think it is a good method that organizations should use to collect money. Texting is one of the fastest means that people use to communicate nowadays, and although the process may take the Red Cross longer than expected, they can look towards using other resources in the meantime.
Allie-
ReplyDeleteI experienced frustrations too when donating via text message to the Red Cross's Help for Haiti Fund. Although they promoted the campaign on TV through commercials and nighttime news broadcasts, they failed to say how long it would take for the money to get to where we wanted it to.
Although the time constraint is frustrating, I still think it is a good method that organizations should use to collect money. Texting is one of the fastest means that people use to communicate nowadays, and although the process may take the Red Cross longer than expected, they can look towards using other resources in the meantime.