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Special Olympics Northern California Partners with iLoop Mobile for Innovative Text Message Fundraising and Mobile Site Cause Marketing

July 24, 2009

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iLoop Mobile and Mobile Giving Foundation Power Special Olympics Donation Drive–Text SONC to 20222 to Donate $5 Via Your Mobile Phone

SAN JOSE, CA (RPRN) 7/24/2009--Special Olympics Northern California (SONC) has teamed up with iLoop Mobile, the leader in mobile marketing solutions and services, to launch innovative programs in the mobile channel that will make it easy for more people to engage and support Special Olympics programs throughout the region. Special Olympics Northern California is a non-profit organization that provides free year-round sports training and competition opportunities in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with developmental disabilities throughout Northern California. With iLoop Mobile and carrier-certified admin from the Mobile Giving Foundation (MGF), the Special Olympics Northern California says the mobile channel will offer an effective new avenue for people to sign-up for volunteer opportunities and make donations.

Like most nonprofit organizations, Special Olympics Northern California has seen a significant decline in donations this past year. To complement existing fundraising efforts, Special Olympics turned to iLoop Mobile to maximize the reach and ease of collecting donations with the simultaneous objective of targeting a younger demographic.

“Employing a mobile marketing strategy as part of our overall community building and fundraising effort will be increasingly important in this economic climate,” said Rick Collett, CEO and President of Special Olympics Northern California. “We need to be accessible to our supporters wherever they are, whenever they like, so we can continue to provide life-changing services to thousands of developmentally disabled individuals. Partnering with iLoop Mobile at this stage of the game is just smart business.”

iLoop Mobile with MGF recently deployed a text message donation initiative for Special Olympics that leverages the ubiquity of the mobile phone allowing the audience to instantly donate anytime, anywhere that the call to action “Donate $5 to the Special Olympics by texting SONC to 20222” can be displayed.

The mobile call to action is easily inserted into every traditional marketing initiative making a completed donation instantly actionable. By simply texting the keyword SONC to the short code 20222 as promoted/displayed in any traditional media (email, print, Web, TV, radio etc.), the user is then notified via text that $5 will be added to their mobile service bill as a donation. The end user confirms their donation by replying YES, which then triggers a “thank you” text that also invites them to donate up to 4 times more per month by simply replying with the keyword SONC again. 100% of the $5 goes to the SONC, with the Mobile Giving Foundation facilitating the carrier-compliant administration of the campaign, insuring transparent and accurate remittance of all funds collected by the carriers. Outside market metrics on text message donation campaigns has shown participation rates ranging from 1.5% up to 15%, many times exceeding online Web donation performance.

iLoop Mobile is very excited to be working with Special Olympics in non-profit fundraising and organization brand awareness via mobile,” said iLoop Mobile’s Michael Becker, VP of mobile strategies. “We see a bright future for all non-profit organizations in leveraging the unique reach and ease of use of mobile. We see the opportunity for exponential growth in fundraising and compelling mobile interaction with the SONC’s target audience that only mobile can bring.”

Part of that new audience interaction, along with the SONC’s online web site (www.sonc.org), is the SONC mobile Internet site at http://sonc.mobi created by iLoop Mobile. The mobile site is SONC’s first step into creating an interactive cause environment on mobile phones. The site builds a foundation that includes SONC organizational information, mobile donations, opt-in to SMS alerts for the latest news and event updates, opt-in to volunteer opportunities and Tell A Friend site forwarding. Special Olympics Northern California has planned expansion of site functionality to include media rich content and interactivity including end user profile-based interactions.

Jim Manis, the Chairman and CEO of the Mobile Giving Foundation indicated they are delighted to work with iLoop Mobile and the Special Olympics of Northern California in making mobile giving available to supporters of such a wonderful cause. “The mobile giving channel shows how wireless innovation speaks to the relevance of everyday living and empowers people to act on causes of interest to them through an easy, immediate and trusted medium,” said Manis.

About iLoop Mobile
iLoop Mobile is the leader in mobile solutions and services for interactive mobile marketing and mobile content distribution. iLoop Mobile makes it fast and easy for brands, marketing agencies, content owners, non-profit organizations and other companies to create compelling and effective mobile marketing initiatives worldwide. iLoop Mobile’s software platform offers an integrated self-service SAAS solution for creating and managing all types of SMS marketing/messaging, mobile Internet sites, mobile enabled Web sites, IVR, mobile giving, mobile advertising and many other advanced mobile initiatives. Professional services and mobile marketing expertise are also available for companies looking for assistance with their mobile campaigns. For more information visit www.iloopmobile.com.

About Special Olympics Northern California

Special Olympics Northern California is a free year-round sports training and competition program for children and adults with developmental disabilities. More than 13,000 athletes compete in over 170 competitions throughout the region in 15 sports.  Find out how you can be a fan and visit www.SONC.org or http://SONC.mobi.

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Press Contact:

Michael Ahearn

VP Marketing + Communications

iLoop Mobile

(408) 907-3367

michael.ahearn@iloopmobile.com

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