The MicroLoan Foundation is a small, London-based charity that helps women in Africa to set up their own small businesses.Our campaign is called 'Pennies for Life'.We wanted to find an engaging way to invite the public to interact with our cause, by showing how even a small donation here could make a big difference in Africa.So we used mobile SMS technology in a new way that enabled people to make an instant donation to the charity, and receive an immediate, public reward.On a digital poster site at a busy shopping centre in London, we created unfinished portraits of African women, made entirely of pennies.Then we invited passers-by to complete each picture by texting a donation to the poster, along with their name.Making innovative use of Grand Visual’s OpenLoop platform, the SMS activated an on-screen animation sequence, and the donation dropped into place as an animated shower of coins, adding to the unfinished portrait.The donor's name also appeared on the screen, with a personal 'thank you'.As soon as we had received enough donations to fund one business loan, all the donors were rewarded with an animation sequence that completed the portrait, and demonstrated how the money raised would help the woman to set up her new business.Then the journey continued. Each donor received a reply text inviting them to our campaign microsite, where they could view a live donation tracker and find their own credit in our ‘portrait gallery’, as well as seeing who else had contributed. They could also announce their donation by Twitter, Facebook and Google+, and invite their friends to take part. The uniqueness of the campaign meant that people participated on multiple levels: actively sending text donations, watching the poster animation live, watching footage posted overnight on YouTube, reading about the event in social media, and visiting the charity’s website.

In total, 314,200* people were exposed to the campaign, either at the site itself, or through Twitter reach. More importantly, from one poster site, in its first weekend, 21 women in Africa who had nothing now have their own small businesses.[353 words]*Combined Twitter reach figure and approx Southern Terrace footfall figure, provided by Westfield.

The artists that kindly created original work for us were Billie Jean, Sanna Annuka, Boris Hoppeck, Kam Tang and Alison Carmichael.

The fact that the artist changed daily ensured that donations were evenly spread throughout the week and enabled The MicroLoan Foundation to not only meet, but exceed, their daily targets.The campaign raised a total of £50,396.53 and reached 191,432 individuals via email, social media and the charity’s website.