For those of you that do not know, a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) is essentially a mobile network or operator that is renting spectrum and or bandwidth from a major carrier, say like Sprint or Cingular and white labels it to cater to a niche market. You may be familiar with some of these and not even know they are an MVNO. Of the more house hold MVNO names you have Virgin Mobile, Boost, Helio, Disney and Ampd. You might also be familiar with the ESPN Mobile MVNO experience and all the controversy and speculation about the success of MVNO's that caused when it went belly-up in less than a year. There is no doubt in my mind that the MVNO market is a shaky one who's outcome is nowhere near certain. But, that does not mean that in the meantime it cannot also try to do some good. The well known Credit Card and long distance company Working Assets has been quietly revving up their MVNO engines over the past year. For those of you that are not familiar with the company, Working Assets is a for profit company that takes a portion of what they charge their customers and automatically donates it to a progressive organization working for peace, human rights, economic justice, education and the environment. The company is now applying the same business model to the wireless world through what is proving to be a very interesting MVNO model. As a stand alone MVNO running off of the Sprint network, Working Assets Wireless (WAW) donates 1 percent of the amount its customers spends on mobiles to charitable causes. But delving deep into the chartable world, Working Assets is allowing various charities and causes to, in a sense, white label their MVNO and allow customers to buy a dedicated phone the links directly to the charity of their choice and donating 10 percent of customer spending to that cause. Last November Amnesty Wireless was launched, with 10 percent of profits going to Amnesty International, and a partnership for Humane Wireless is in the works. The latest of the partnerships is with the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) which just recently launched Planned Parenthood Wireless which will, as mentioned before, donate 10 percent of its revenues to PPFA. But Working Assets also goes beyond just being a mobile fundraising tool for their partners. They also provide a mobile activism solution and platform (powered by Politxt) that utilizes SMS alerts and text messaging to rally supporters around legislative decisions and women’s health issues. This service is a standard service that comes along with clients that sign up for the MVNO package but, and this is the cool part, it is not limited to only people with a Planned Parent Hood Phone. The mobile activism campaign platform works across all carriers and is a great tool to start tinkering with a mobile campaign. The sub-MVNO model is a real interesting one and is the first time we are seeing it really successfully (and perhaps ever really) being played out here. Perhaps political causes are just a good case model for this type of MVNO relationship... we shall see.

Technorati Tags: amnesty international, ampd, boost, disney, espn, helio, mvno, planned parenthood, politxt, virgin mobile, working assets

Fundraising | Mobile | Non-Profits
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