Two years ago, a major earthquake struck near the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. Up to 3 million people were killed, injured or displaced. In the wake of this disaster, aid flowed in via many channels -- including, notably, individual donations sent via text message.
The Red Cross immediately launched a donate-by-text program, promoted heavily by the U.S. State Department and the mainstream media. This yielded $43 million in donations from Americans -- sent $10 at a time by texting the word "HAITI" to the shortcode 90999. (The donation appeared as a charge on donors' phone bills.)
Who are these mobile givers? What motivated them to give, and did their donations to Haitian earthquake relief influence their future patterns of giving?
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