"Donating to the Red Cross to support victims of Hurricane Gustav is like buying a GM car - why would you when there are so many better choices that fit the Connected Age? C'mon, Team Obama, stop trying to appease and start trying to change the world!"
That's the intro to Allison's blistering post [1]over at Personal Democracy Forum [2] about the Obama campaign's call [3] to aid Gulf hurricane victims by donating to the Red Cross. This ties in to one of our favorite (and as yet unanswered) issues -- are traditional institutions outdated? And if so, should we try adapting them, or rather let them fall by the wayside and move to more progressive models?
Comments
I think the question "Are traditional institutions outdated?" is a strong one and one that should be discussed. However, I would just like to take a second to quickly counter some of the criticism over the choice of the organization here.
I am a big component of bringing the concept of mobile giving to light and think the Obama and McCain camps serving as messengers of this opportunity is great. YES, when it comes to online giving and 1-800 calls, there are many relief organizations to choose from and the presidential camps should consider this before making a selection. However, mobile giving takes a lot more work to set up and only so many organizations are set up to receive mobile donations... the Red Cross being one of them.
In fact, this specific disaster relief mobile giving opportunity is made possible due to the Wireless Foundation/Red Cross partnership that led to the TEXT2HELP initiative.
I also wish there were more options for recipient organizations during this time, but if you want to give via text message right now, the menu is limited... Hopefully, with the help of the Mobile Giving Foundation, we will see this change drastically in the next year or so. The ideal being that any non-profit can automatically set themselves up for mobile donations in a day if they need to...