The Surprising Link Between "American Idol" And Text-To-Donate Fundraising

As Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005, AT&T engineer Marian Croak found inspiration for what turned out to be a very good idea from a very unlikely source. In 2003, AT&T had helped American Idol set up a voting system that relied on text messages rather than voice calls. This was a big deal because, at the time, text messaging was still new. Some 22% of respondents to a 2008 informal poll on AT&T’s website said that they learned to text in order to vote on the show.

Now, Croak thought, a similar system could be used to accept donations by text message. “I know those sound like very different situations, but you can use the same implementation for both of those,” she says. Instead of conveying votes made by text message to an operator, in other words, AT&T could pass on donations made by text message to a charity. Customers would see the donation as a charge on their phone bills.