We are not quite there yet in fundraising, but in the commercial world, “mobile advertising is no longer a question of ‘if’ but of ‘when,’” said Noah Elkin, principal analyst at eMarketer. “A key factor pushing mobile advertising toward the mainstream is that mobile web access is fast becoming more the norm than the exception. This makes mobile a greater imperative than ever for marketers.”

Mobile display ad spending (banners, rich media and video) will overtake messaging to become the largest overall format in 2012. Within the display category, rich media and video are growing the fastest as marketers seek to translate the desktop’s engaging brand experiences to smartphones and tablets.

Marketers are approaching mobile from a perspective of both less and more: less experimentation and more commitment, fewer test budgets and more real dollars, fewer one-off campaigns and more repeat buys. Most importantly, there is a growing sophistication in marketers’ efforts to integrate mobile into their broader digital campaigns to engage consumers. Mobile will continue to emerge as less of an afterthought and more of a permanent fixture in marketers’ digital strategies.

“Consumers increasingly expect to communicate, network, browse and shop from a range of devices, and the growing sophistication of smart devices will only accelerate this trend,” Elkin said. “But whether consumers access the web from a PC or a mobile device will ultimately take a back seat to marketers’ ability to build campaigns that reach across channels and devices and focus on targeting specific actions.”

Mobile will move to fundraising

While mobile fundraising is not as far along, I do believe that at some point (fairly soon) mobile communication will impact our world in the same way.  Most charitable organizations have more pressing priorities, but keep mobile fundraising on your radar.