By Senior Editor – Kris Smith (@croncast)

And it is a good thing that it will. In due time, when all of those phone bills get paid with their $10 SMS donations to the Red Cross, the money will pour into Haiti.

Yes, the bulk of all aid money is needed at the beginning of this crisis to ensure security, fresh water and food. But, donations that arrive in 30+ days as mobile phone billing cycles begin and bills are paid will come at a critical time for relief. It will arrive at a time when longer term solutions to problems are being resolved.

As Haitians evacuate what is left of Port-au-Prince they will be heading to less devastated countryside towns – much like the refugees of New Orleans after Katrina to places like Gonzales, LA or Houston, TX. When they arrived in their new temporary homes many of them made the choice to stay.

These adopted places of residence then had to deal with an increase in students, additional municipal concerns and a bevy of labor market issues. An influx of federal money was needed address long-term implications of such a population shift.

The current focus of discontent with this text-to-donate method is two fold: people are upset that the money won’t be immediately available to the quake victims and concern over the idea (fact or fiction) that the telecom companies collecting this money and distributing it on behalf of those that are donating will get the tax break.

Both are valid concerns but meaningless when the intent is to help those that need it. And to avoid the first point of discontent it is just as easy for anyone to donate online directly to a charity like the Red Cross without a delay.

Prior to the popularity of this SMS to donate method text based payments that were handled by the mobile carrier we’re subject to a 50% fee for simply using the system. The domestic carriers in the States have said that they will not be adding this charge and that all donations will be paid to the Red Cross at 100%. That should have been a greater concern but most of the public was not aware of this policy.

Verizon and other carriers have recently announced that they will be advancing to the Red Cross much of the potential SMS donations. This was no doubt from the public pressure of their customers and warranted as a good business decision. It might also change the way that text and SMS programs are handled in the future – if at all.

With such large sums of money that are required to be fronted for instant payment it doesn’t ring true as a solid product offering. It sounds more like an opportunity to be driven out of business. Especially, if there is any sort of impropriety between the time the advance is sent and the time that customers make their payments to cover the advance. A customer revolt at that time with social media roots that could ask all who pledged not to pay the amount.

In the social media landscape of memes, that doesn’t sound too far from a reality. It is going to be interesting to see how all of this is sorted out and what types of new programs come from it.

However, the most important part is that the much needed money for assistance in Haiti will arrive. This is a better problem to have than not having any money available to help.

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• Americans Give Record $3 Million Via Text Messages for Haiti Relief Effort (dailyfinance.com)
• Update On mGive Mobile Giving: Already over $1 million for Haiti (mobhappy.com)
• T-Mobile USA Waives Call Charges to and from Haiti (ubergizmo.com)

Tags: CSCA , Haiti , New Orleans , Port-au-Prince , Red Cross , short code pledges , short codes for donations , sms to donate , text to donate , txt-to-donate