Add philanthropy to the growing list of applications for mobile phones. One of the newest and most interesting innovations to combine philanthropy and technology is mobile giving.

Donating by text message is a new phenomenon, one that a Bellevue non-profit is pioneering by providing the platform to link donors to charities, as a story I wrote describes in detail today.

Mobile phone users can text a word such as HOPE (American Cancer Society), RIGHTS (Amnesty International), NET (Malaria No More), MEALS (Food Lifeline) or many others to a designated short code and contribute $5 or $10 to a cause. The Bellevue-based Mobile Giving Foundation acts as a clearinghouse for donations, helping non-profits set up codes and settling the billing between carriers and charities. The charges appear on donors' cell phone bills.

Mobile Giving Foundation CEO Jim Manis, a wireless industry veteran, got started helping set up a system for people to send donations for emergency relief efforts following Hurricane Katrina and the Asian tsunami.

GREG GILBERT/SEATTLE TIMES

Jim Manis is working to expand mobile giving.

The system gave people a way to take action immediately in response to a need. Manis also saw it as a way to reach younger donors.

He persuaded U.S. mobile carriers to agree to process the donations free of charge (though they do earn something from text messaging charges). The foundation also works with a dozen service providers that create mobile fund raising campaigns for non-profits.

Text donation campaigns have been gaining momentum since the Super Bowl in 2008, which featured a commercial to text $5 to help a United Way youth fitness program.

Political campaigns have made extensive use of mobile phones and the Internet, and earlier this year the U.S. government started a drive to adopt new media in support of foreign policy by calling on Americans to text pledges to people in Pakistan through the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

In the future, there may be a way to text $5 directly to the phone of someone you want to help.

Mobile giving is just starting to catch on, but considering there are more than 270 million mobile subscribers in the U.S alone (and more than 4 billion worldwide), it has the potential for power in numbers.