The United Nations Foundation has launched an SMS campaign as it looks to leverage mobile to bring philanthropy, advocacy and public engagement to the next level.

By texting ?UNF? to 80676, subscribers will receive text alerts on their mobile phones and learn about simple ways they can get involved with the work of the United Nations. Users will be able to take action to confront climate change, fight extreme poverty and address other issues.

?Thanks to UN?s partnership with 4Info, people can have a chance to do something from the palm of their hands that impacts the world directly,? said Aaron Sherinian, vice president of communications and public relations for the United Nations Foundation. ?This gives people a way to be globally engaged and help the UN every single day.?

?Mobile allows us to have a relationship with people on a daily basis -- some people want that so why not engage with them that way,? he said. ?We know that SMS is an important part of it.?

App on the way
The UNF is using the SMS platform to promote a number of its current campaigns as well as educating the community on important facts.

For example, an alert users received last week said: "Fact: Exposure to cookstove smoke doubles a child's risk of pneumonia. Take Action!"

The alert had a link to the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves campaign ? a public-private initiative that the UNF is sponsoring to empower women and combat climate change by creating efficient household cooking solutions.

The SMS effort is part of a bigger push into mobile, which includes the launch on Sept. 15 of a mobile application that will pull in news streams from around the world with content related to UNF issues.

There is also a mobile display component that will run on a number of top publisher sites. Most of the ads are focused around a malaria prevention campaign and will lead users to the new application.

?We are taking a 360 approach to mobile,? Mr. Sherinian said.

Mobile giving
The UNF worked with 4Info to develop a mobile strategy to boost mobile interaction and user engagement.

?With 4Info, the UN Foundation can give its supporters options for giving back in a way that is convenient for them,? said Zaw Thet, CEO of 4Info.

Users who opt-in for the text alerts will also be able to make donations.

The UN has a partnership with MGive that enables mobile users to text to donate to specific causes. For the causes that do not currently have text to give capabilities, users will be directed to that cause?s mobile Web site where they can make a donation via credit card.

The UN plans to roll out text to give for all of its causes throughout this year.  

?Texting to give is important for the entire philanthropy space and I think we?re just beginning to see how important it can be,? Mr. Sherinian said.

?When we engage with people on a daily basis, they are more generous and giving, because they are more informed,? he said.

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York

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