The Hungarian Red Cross has used mobile technology to raise funds for disaster relief — notably after the Japanese tsunami — but for the first time has enlisted social media in the process. The organization is running a Facebook campaign that lets smartphone users make instant donations to aid victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.

The donations will pass through the MasterCard Mobile app that was developed by the Hungarian m-payments firm Cellum. The solution relies on QR codes. The method is available only in Hungary.

According to Cellum, the process works like this:

• Download the MasterCard Mobile app to your smartphone and register your bank card, then follow the steps to secure your personal data.
• To donate, scan the QR code shared on Facebook with the built-in scanner of MasterCard Mobile. Transaction data are displayed on the screen to ensure the donation goes to the chosen cause.
• The QR code contains a minimum sum, which can be increased.
• Then press the send button to review and confirm transaction data.
• The app then initiates the transaction, which you need to authorize by entering your mPIN.
• You will receive feedback on the successful transaction, which can later be viewed in the transactions menu.

The donations will pass through Cellum's system and quickly go to the Hungarian Red Cross' account, which is dedicated to typhoon relief efforts.

Cellum spokesman Balázs Inotay said donations are a matter of impulse and that people who decide to give want to act quickly. "Chances are they don't carry around a pen to put down a 24-digit bank account number on a piece of paper," he said in a news release. "And by the time they get home and visit their online bank where they could transfer the money, they have already been distracted by a hundred other stimuli, so they end up sending nothing. Cellum's solution is simple; whenever the impulse hits people, they probably have their phone at hand."

Learn more about in-app payments.