The American Humane Association is turning to the iPhone to extend its brand and "Be Humane!" campaign.

American Humane hopes to reach a younger audience with the development of this iPhone application. This is just one of the company's marketing techniques.

"The strategy is to get younger audiences excited about American Humane's mission to create a more human and compassionate world by ending abuse and neglect of children and animals," said Andrea Palten, director of e-philanthropy for the American Humane Association.

"We hope this exciting iPhone app will enlist and encourage younger potential constituents to spread the word about American Humane's important work," Ms. Palten said.

Through a network of child and animal protection agencies and individuals, American Humane provides national leadership in developing policies, legislation and training programs, taking actions to protect children and animals from cruelty, abuse, neglect and exploitation.

The iPhone application lets users learn more about the organization by explaining American Humane's mission and letting the user know that the association has been protecting animals and children since 1877.

Once on the application, the user can do a variety of things on the American Humane channel.

Users can watch a short video about American Humane, view images of some of the animals and children the organization has helped, send an email to a friend to learn more about the nonprofit, donate to the cause, click-to-call and visit the Web site.

Users can also read movie reviews detailing how the animal action was achieved and read the CEO's blog entries.

"This app will help us with regard to branding," Ms. Palten said. "People who don't clearly understand what American Humane does will now be able to easily get a clear picture of our mission, our work, and the distinctions between American Humane and other, seemingly similar humane organizations."

Currently the application is supported by iugo. Iugo was founded in 2003 as an independent studio specializing in the design, development and deployment of mobile content.

The application also features a PayPal feature that lets the organization receive donations.

There has recently been a growing trend in terms of nonprofits that turn to mobile to get their word out.

In early Aug., The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals launched a mobile site.

Powered by Punchkick Interactive, the ASPCA's mobile site aims to increase the organization's visibility amongst on-the-go consumers. The custom mobile Web site for the ASPCA will feature content specially tailored for mobile-phone Web browsing (see story).

The Partnership for a Drug Free America took its message mobile in order to reach parents of teens and tweens.

With SmartReply's multimillion unit SMS text messaging inventory and VeraSprite's custom audio visual messages, the Partnership's "Time To Talk" campaign got tips, tools and advice to parents about their children and drug usage (see story).

The Humane Society of the United States also extended its online video library to Apple iPhone and iPod touch users (see story).

"We want to target a new and younger audience with this iPhone app," Ms. Palten said. "We hope that this new generation will spread the word through viral marketing, explore our website, potentially donate and ultimately help us to create a more humane and compassionate world."