Independent mobile retailer Phones 4u partnered with interactive communications provider Oxygen8 Communications, to provide a text-to-donate scheme to help raise money to send a team of Phones 4u employees to Kilimanjaro in support of the teenage cancer charity, The Ellis Harriet Clark Foundation.

The overall fundraising target was £250,000, with individual trekkers each seeking to raise £1,000 by climbing the mountain in February this year. 
Oxygen8 provided an SMS shortcode – TREK 88833 – which would enable customers, Phones 4u colleagues, friends and family to text in at a cost of £1.50 plus their standard network charge. The proceeds from the premium texts went towards the charity.

Tom Shorten, HR and operations director at Phones 4u explains: “We have a large presence on the high street and took a number of routes to secure funding for the trek and The Ellis Harriet Clark Foundation, but we were also keen to embrace the cutting edge mobile technology we have aligned ourselves with. SMS donations fit this bill perfectly and provided a quick and easy way to donate to our cause, which raised important funds that will go some way to making the lives of children suffering with cancer a little easier.

“As this is the first time that we have used an interactive donation service, we were looking for a communications provider that could provide us with a suitable solution as well as high levels of support and guidance and this is exactly what Oxygen8 offered; they’ve been fantastic.”