In the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti, the American Red Cross raised over $32 million in donations through $10 text messages. This figure smashed the existing mobile fundraising efforts and amazed even the champions of mobile advocacy.

Introducing Twilio SMS

Has your organization ever wanted to have an easy way to automate your text-messaging services? Last week, Twilio announced a tool that allows you to add SMS functionality to your web apps for about 3 cents a message. At the bottom of this post, I've embedded a video from Twilio explaining how the service works.

Text messaging technology has recieved a lot of attention after having a considerable impact in the aftermath of the recent earthquake in Haiti, but for some of us it's hard to know the best ways to dip our toes into the world of SMS.

I.  What does Cell Alert/FrontlineSMS offer?

Cell Alert/FrontlineSMS empowers people in poor areas by providing alerts on anything they want to track. Whenever our online searches find useful information, we forward alerts alerts through cell phone or email that lets users act in response to humanitarian crises, genocide, economic aid, medical supplies, loans, and agricultural market trends.

II.  Our origins and development

Cell Alertâ„¢ was launched as a non-profit service as a response to difficulties encountered by refugees coming to the Washington D.C. area from many different African countries.

Is education in Africa changing as mobile telephony expands to rural areas and rates keep dropping?

I heart my text messages.

Who doesn't like to get a note from their sweety during the day or confirm the address of where you're meeting your friend without having to take notes and loose it on the way there?

On my new cell phone when I call 411 they send the number I was calling about as a text message to my phone. I think that's cool. Why? Because I don't have to try and write it down and then program it back in my phone after they connect me. Also, I don't always have to call them back every time I want a specific number because I'm too lazy to program it. Now, I just program it right way in a few buttons. It saves them money, I'm sure, because I have unlimited 411 on my plan and they want to reduce the number of times I'm calling, no doubt.