One in four Americans now access the Mobile Web daily, yet only a tiny fraction of nonprofits have a mobile website. I have been watching this trend for almost two years now and there’s seemingly been almost no progress in the use of mobile websites by the nonprofit sector in that time which at this point leaves me mostly baffled. The rise of QR Codes has helped some nonprofits understand the need for at least mobile-optimized web pages. A QR code that launches a desktop-designed web page in a mobile browser just doesn’t make sense. Neither does linking to desktop sites inside smartphone apps, in group text alerts, or on location-based communities like Foursquare and Gowalla. That said, I am a firm believer that a mobile website is the building block upon which to center your other mobile campaigns, but since January 2010 when I first featured 10 Nonprofit Mobile Websites, there hasn’t been much progress made.
My hypothesis as to why nonprofits are falling behind is that they think that adopting the Mobile Web is expensive or time-consuming, or they equate the mobile technology solely with text-to-give. Well, early adoption of the Mobile is not expensive and text-to-give should definitely not be a nonprofit’s entry point into mobile technology. That said, I think the word is finally starting to trickle out that mobile campaigns can be done on a shoestring budget and are accessible to all nonprofits. If your nonprofit is considering tapping into mobile technology, my advice to you would be to start a with a mobile website and then expand from there. Here are 33 nonprofit mobile websites to help get your creativity flowing:
1. 350.0rg :: m.350.org
2. Best Friends Animal Society :: m.bestfriends.org
3. British Museum :: m.britishmuseum.org
4. Child Fund International :: m.childfund.org
5. Children’s Medical Center of Dayton :: m.childrensdayton.org
6. Concern Worldwide :: m.concern.net
7. Cyber Bulling UK :: m.cyberbullying.co.uk
8. Dallas Art Museum :: dallasmuseumofart.mobi
9. Feeding America :: m.feedingamerica.org
10. Goodwill Industries International :: m.goodwill.org
11. Harvard Business Review :: m.hbr.org
12. Humane Society of the United States :: m.humanesociety.org
13. Hollywood Bowl :: m.hollywoodbowl.com
14. Jimmy Fund :: m.jimmyfund.org
15. Metropolitan Opera :: m.metoperafamily.org
16. Monterey Bay Aquarium :: m.montereybayaquarium.org
17. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art :: nelson-atkins.org/mobileguide
18. Nature Conservancy :: m.nature.org
19. National Geographic :: m.nationalgeographic.com
20. National Public Radio :: m.npr.org
21. Oceana :: m.oceana.org
22. Planned Parenthood :: m.plannedparenthood.org
23. Prairie State Legal Services :: m.pslegal.org
24. San Diego Zoo :: m.sandiegozoo.org
25.Save the Children:: m.savethechildren.org
26. Sharp HealthCare :: m.sharp.com
27. Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum :: mobile.nasm.si.edu
28. Smithsonian National Postal Museum :: postalmuseum.si.edu/mobile
29. Soles4Souls :: m.soles4souls.org
30. Susan G. Komen for the Cure :: m.komen.org
31. Take Me Fishing :: takemefishing.org/mobile
32. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum :: ushmm.mobi
33. World Wildlife Fund :: worldwildlife.org/mobile
Related Links:
Webinar: How Nonprofits Can Successfully Utilize Mobile Websites, Group Texting and Text-to-Give Technology
Webinar: How Nonprofits Can Successfully Utilize Mobile Social Networking Tools and Location-Based Communities
Mobile Technology for Nonprofit Organizations LinkedIn Group
