Recent charity drives to raise money following two natural disasters in Italy have been bolstered by money sent in through text messages on cell phones.

“Help Now,”the campaign organized by daily Corriere della Sera and news program TG5, has seen donations sent in by so-called ‘thumb tribes’ or mobile phone users top or equal those sent in by credit card. Aid for earthquake victims in San Giuliano was approximately three million euro for both credit cards and SMS messages; at 942,000 euro the amount pulled in from text messages is more than triple sent in by credit cards to help flood victims in Northern Italy.

The bulk of donations were still sent in the old-fashioned way, by bank transfer, because Italians are also wary of trusting checks to the vagaries of the national postal system. With 40,000 text messages sent in Italy daily, these humanitarian SMS campaigns may soon catch up with traditional methods. Part of the phenomenon is certainly the ease and low cost of sending an blank SMS at the cost of one euro to help earthquake or flood victims and the other part is likely attributable to low numbers of Italians who own and use credit cards.

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