Use your cell phone.

I am not a frequent cell phone user. I kept my analog version for years after it was popular. My friends made fun of me and I was sore from carrying the gargantuan thing, but I kept it until it broke. Now that I finally have a digital one, it's often uncharged, and when it is I sometimes forget to turn the ringer on. Folks have learned that it's not even worth calling me on it. But I am definitely in the minority.

Text-messaging on cell phones is the fastest growing marketing medium ever (no thanks to me). The Mission Reach Foundation is taking advantage of the growth and using it for good. They offer organizations a unique opportunity through text messaging to assist their outreach programs in securing global donations. They allow the cell phone user to make donations to their favorite organization through their phone, and the billing goes directly on the cell phone bill. How fast and convenient! Ready to get involved?

* Learn more about how the program works.

* Become a partner so that your organization can begin text-message marketing and receiving donations.

* Become a donor and support your favorite organization. After sending a text message to a particular code, donors will receive a confirmation text message to initiate a daily contribution of 25 cents for 31 consecutive days. (I hear some folks spend more than that on just the text-messaging!) The donation will appear on your monthly bill.

Thanks to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for their story on The Mission Reach Foundation. Now that's telemarketing!

"The best way to teach a child restraint and generosity is to be a model of those qualities yourself. If your child sees that you want a particular item but refrain from buying it, either because it isn’t practical or because you can’t afford it, he will begin to understand restraint. Likewise, if you donate books or clothing to charity, take him with you to distribute the items to teach him about generosity." - Lawrence Balter (1989), psychologist and author.