The Initiative

Astral Radio, Canada’s largest Radio broadcaster picks one day a year to raise money for Children’s Charities.  Over 50 radio stations across Canada dedicate 12 full hours to fundraising, plus hundreds of man hours behind the scenes and leading up to the big day.  In Calgary, CJAY 92, 98.5 Virgin Radio, and Classic Country AM 1060, were thrilled to team up with the Kids Cancer Care Foundation, as their sole fundraising recipient.

"We’ve been fortunate enough to help raise more than $300, 000 in only 2 years.  The success of this program is based on many factors including the recently developed option of “Text to Donate”.  This year we had our listeners’ text the words “Kids Can” to 45678 to donate $10...and we had more than 590 texts pour in. This is a significant amount considering the text amount went up from $5 to $10 in one year."

Why Astral Radio and Kids Cancer Care chose to use Text to Donate?

Texting is an easy alternative for a rapidly growing demographic of younger radio listeners.  It allows them the option to quickly donate without having to dial the phone and the option to give a smaller, one time donation.  Text to Donate allows radio the opportunity to connect directly to the listener, which might be tuning in for a short time and might not take the time to call in.  Most importantly this opens up an avenue for donors in a new demographic.  

Results

Thanks to the Mobile Giving Foundation, ZipGive and the Children’s Miracle Network for allowing this collaboration, in the past 2 years Astral Media has dedicated 24 hours of live broadcasts with Astral Radio Calgary to raise more than $15,000 for Kids Cancer Care Foundation of Alberta.

The Kids Cancer Care Foundation of Alberta (KCC) is a charitable organization that helps build bridges of hope and pillars of support for families fighting childhood cancer. The Foundation helps Alberta children and families by providing funding and programs in four key areas: Camp & Community; Childhood Cancer Research; Hospital Support and Scholarship.

"We thank our partners in the community that have the ability to increase awareness about KCC and most importantly the funds needed to run our programs, YOU are making a difference in the lives of children affected by cancer!!!"