Fifty percent of nonprofit organizations expect to adopt mobile donor engagement and fundraising in the next two years, according to a recent study by the Kaptivate Group.

Currently, 36 percent of the organizations use mobile media or plan to deploy a mobile channel this year. Nonprofit adoption of mobile is expected to grow significantly in 2010.

Mobile giving

The study found that 62 percent of nonprofit organizations do not know how to market or promote via the mobile channel effectively. With the limitations of the current technology, 58 percent raised less than $1,000 in funding via mobile, because doners were not aware of the mobile giving capability.

Eighty-three percent of respondents that were surveyed believed mobile would improve donor convenience, as well as reinforce donor engagement by 74 percent and donor acquisition by 69 percent.

“Despite limited successes, nonprofits are doing some creative thinking about what would make mobile a game-changer for their organizations,” Mr. Vassallo said. “Respondents clearly see it as a medium that can do more than capture small transactions.

“They believe it has the power to engage and mobilize supporters in ways they’ve only begun to appreciate,” he said.

“Nonprofit marketers need to understand that mobile is not a panacea but can be a powerful addition to their marketing mix through integration with social media and cross promotion with more traditional channels.”

Nonprofits go mobile

“As many of nonprofits already appreciate, mobile’s potential extends far beyond anonymous $10 gifts,” Mr. Vassallo said. “Their mobile campaigns can deliver a richer, branded user experience through mobile Web applications, catalyze legislative action through SMS alerts, and drive mission outcomes through clever on-the-ground crowd sourcing.

“Given creativity and experimentation, mobile may transform how nonprofits – whether school, cause or house of worship – engage their supporters,” he said.

“The year 2010 will be the year nonprofits get smarter about mobile but they will leap frog past the first generation of technology and begin to explore mobile opportunities across myriad platforms.”

Ever since Google announced back in January that it would be selling a Verizon Wireless-compatible Nexus One in the spring, plenty of people have been waiting anxiously to make that smartphone buy. As of January, the Nexus One was the hottest Android handset on the market, and plenty of folks swear by Verizon. It sounded like a match made in heaven-or at least a potentially attractive combination,

Well, spring has sprung, and it sounds like the Verizon Nexus turned out to be DBA (Dead Before Arrival): Bloomberg is reporting that the handset has been scrapped. It's not entirely clear why-the story begins by saying that Verizon "retreated" from being involved with the Nexus One, but then it quotes a Google spokesperson saying that Google decided to skip it because of "amazing innovation happening across the open Android ecosystem," and a Verizon spokesperson who seems to say that the carrier is still interested. Maybe it was a mutual decision.

In any event, it's no biggie. Verizon has already launched the Droid Incredible, a well-reviewed phone that's essentially the Nexus One only more so. And for all Google's talk of changing the way people buy phones, it remains unclear what the benefit is of getting your phone from Google rather than a carrier-especially in the case of Verizon, since there's no such thing as a Verizon-compatible phone that's unlocked and able to work on other networks. The Verizon Nexus One was going to be a Verizon Nexus One, even if it was Google doing the order fulfillment.

In other words: If you've been salivating over the Verizon Nexus One since January, don't dispair - get the Incredible. You'll probably be happier than if the Verizon Nexus One had come out.

Coupons of all sort have been made a comeback in recent years, thanks in part to the decline in the economy and the increase in online coupon-delivery technology. A new report from Borrell Associates says that trend is set to continue on mobile devices, as cell phones and GPS-enabled smart phones become a popular platform for offering customer discounts.

Total mobile coupon spending in the U.S. is expected to rise from $90 million in 2009 to $6.53 billion in 2014, according to the 2010 U.S. Local Mobile Advertising and Promotions Forecast. That number is predicted to hit $370 million in 2010. By comparison, total U.S. spend on Internet coupons in 2009 was $4.2 billion, and is expected to hit $22.6 billion in 2014.

Local couponing, which is traditionally slower to grow, will account for $4 of every $100 spent on mobile coupons this year, but will reach $1 out of every $6 by 2014, the report said.

Driving that growth is a combination of economic need and the fact that phones are becoming better equipped to deliver coupons and coupon apps.

"When the economy goes down, people tend to find ways to save money, and there was certainly a very large spike in coupon usage last year," said Gordon Borrell, CEO of Borrell Associates. "It's also that the proximity of the mobile device to someone's wallet is a heck of a lot closer than a PC when you're out driving around."

While Internet coupons still account for much more of the market than mobile ones, the report found that the redeemed value of mobile coupons is 24 percent higher than Internet coupons and nearly half as high as paper coupons. The reason, Borrell said, is that most mobile coupons are of the opt-in variety, which tend to be of greater value.

But while those numbers may seem encouraging to marketers, Borrell noted that they signified consumers are still not interested in receiving unsolicited coupons.

"The magic is in the opt-in," he said. "It's in requesting stuff that is something you really want. It really is marketing more to your loyal customer base, and that's not a bad thing with all the competition out there."

Technology is playing a significant role in the expansion of mobile coupons. Smart phones, which are still a relatively small percentage of the mobile device market, are nonetheless driving mobile coupon spend in two major ways: GPS capability allows marketers to offer discounts to consumers who are nearby and poised to spend, and apps are giving marketers the chance to reach consumers in a media-rich way.

Still, Borrell says expensive apps should not distract marketers from the easiest, most cost-effective ways of offering mobile discounts.

"The simplest things are going to work," he said. "Everybody is going to overlook the simplest things like texting coupons to people and go for the fancy apps, and unfortunately those things tend to be more expensive than they are revenue generators, so there's no ROI."

The new report is a followup to one Borrell released late last year on Internet coupons. That report found that coupon use in general had gone up during 2009, and that newspaper coupons were still more popular (though less valuable) than Internet ones.