2003
The idea of donating to charity via a premium text message is a simple concept.
As manager of ideas in the telecoms company Orange I ideated the concept, built stakeholder support, and worked to launch the first Text to Donate service with the 3rd party services team. The service was premiered with the BBC’s Sport Relief charity and UNICEF.
However, it took until 2011 for UK mobile carriers, including Orange (under the Everything Everywhere brand), to remove the entirety of the charges associated with the service for all charities.
Text to donate is now a standard method to donate to charity campaigns.