Here's a riddle for you: what's plastic, in your pocket right now, and ruins bar trivia nights around the country? A mobile phone!

Your mobile can help you do all kinds of interesting things, from finding directions, to finding trivia answers (aka cheating), to finding potential new friends.

One thing you couldn't do -- until today -- was easily give to the charity of your choice.

Exciting news nonprofiteers: mGive now allows you to collect $5 or $10 donations via text message.

Donors send texts to your campaign, then confirm their intent. The donations are charged directly to their wireless bill. From there, the donations are passed from their carriers to the Mobile Giving Foundation, which then passes on 90 to 95% of the donation to your nonprofit.

Here's the skinny on the rest of the costs involved (from the helpful FAQ):

• $250 monthly service fee
• $0.25 for each completed transaction
• One-time $100 application fee

So there you have it: the very first U.S. text-to-give service.

Want to try giving a donation via text today? You can give to the:

• ASPCA: text Give to 27722
  
• Alicia Keys Keep a Child Alive Campaign: text ALIVE to 90999
• FIT to UNITED (864833)