I remember seeing my mom burn the midnight oil, writing out five and ten dollar checks and putting them into envelopes headed for the Red Cross and CARE when I was growing up.  The next day, she’d walk over to the mailbox and drop them in.  As for me, I’d wait until Halloween for trick-or-treaters to come up to our door collecting change for UNICEF in their little cardboard donation boxes.

These days the act of making a donation has been simplified to the point where there really is no excuse for passing up the opportunity to give.  I was reminded of this as I read stories in the news this morning that over $5 million had already been raised for Haitian disaster relief through donations from text messaging.  By simply texting the word “Haiti” to the number 90999, callers could make an immediate donation of $10 to the Red Cross and their relief effort.  Contributions were streaming in at the rate of about $200,000 per hour, representing the largest outpouring of support in history using mobile devices.  To me, this is an astounding development.  Even something as simple as a personal check dropped in the mail can’t even compare.

If you would like to contribute to disaster relief in Haiti without texting, please check out any of these links to tried-and-true organizations which are on the scene right now:

The American Red Cross

CARE

Doctors Without Borders

UNICEF

Also, for Americans seeking information about family members in Haiti, the US State Department Operations Center has set up this phone number:  1-888-407-4747.