It’s not often that I digress from writing about major gifts, but I had to make an exception for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.
(If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you might be living under a rock — or on an extremely extended vacation.)
In fact, I can’t ever recall a fundraising campaign going viral in this manner, or of this magnitude, before. Just this week, I watched dozens of my Facebook friends, their children, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and many others dump buckets of ice water on their heads in the name of charity.
Are there “flaws” with the campaign? Yes! …If you could call them that.
But overall, I think it is a stroke of luck, genius, and oh yeah… did I mention LUCK?
An Organic Campaign that Went Viral
The funny part is, this was not a “planned” marketing campaign. It was organic. One guy thought to do it to raise awareness for a friend, and it went viral!
There will be (and are) some flaws — and bloggers and journalists have certainly focused on them. But I’d rather focus on the positives (negatives mentioned by others below).
I’m focusing on the positives for two reasons:
- As a fundraiser at heart and consultant to charities, I am green with envy over this campaign. What I wouldn’t give to have everyone from Governor Chris Christie to Justin Timberlake (just to name a few) mentioning my favorite charity on social media! I could work a lifetime in this field and never witness that type of publicity!
- What charity wouldn’t want a windfall of unrestricted operating funds to come their way? It will be interesting to see what ALS is able to do with the extra funds.
$3 million vs. $300,000
The published number is that ALS raised over $3 million in the last few weeks compared with only a few hundred thousand dollars during this same time last year.
I would guess that the end number will be MUCH, much bigger because this campaign is still picking up steam.
- Will they put those funds in an endowment of sorts?
- Will they use them as operating?
- Will they invest in research?
I’m certain this is a hot topic in the board room right now.
The Cynics Weigh In
If you want to read about all the negatives of the campaign, William MacAskill does a pretty good job in his article, The Cold, Hard Truth About the Ice Bucket Challenge.
(Although he makes some interesting observations (who knows if they are based in reality), I think MacAskill’s just jealous that he didn’t think of the Ice Bucket Challenge first!)
Moral Licensing
One of the points he makes is about Moral Licensing, whereby you talk about charity on social media, and then have a sense that you’ve done something, so you don’t actually do anything.
While that may be true, I also believe that people who would never do anything charitable are suddenly talking about it and doing something — with their children.
And, while it’s also true that some people are treating this as a silly stunt and make no mention of ALS or have any idea what ALS is, many people are being educated and learning about ALS.
Slacktivism
Similarly, in his article, Ice Bucket Challenge: Why You’re Not Really Helping, Ben Kosinski talks about Slacktivism, and how people substitute a post on Facebook for real charitable action.
I agree, but again, I believe that most of those individuals wouldn’t do anything anyway, and the positives greatly outweigh the negatives.
The Question of Donor Retention
The big question fundraisers everywhere are asking is how will ALS retain the donors they’ve acquired through this campaign?
At the risk of being a cynic myself, the fact is — for the most part — they won’t.
And I’m okay with that, for all the positive reasons mentioned above.
The Positives Outweigh the Negatives
This post by Roger Craver at The Agitator does an even better job of reinforcing my points. Naysayers of the Ice Bucket Challenge, beware!
Even the death of Robin Williams in the middle of this campaign couldn’t derail it. What will charities fighting depression do to mount a campaign with this kind of power and scope?
All eyes are on The ALS Association right now. What do you think?
Amy, you say it perfectly! There will always be naysayers but you spelled the positives of this campaign out and I agree with you completely! Thanks for writing this.
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Amy, thank you for sharing your thoughts on the ice bucket challenge. I have been wondering what all of the ALS nonprofits are going to do with this unexpected revenue. I hope they are transparent about it. I hadn’t even thought about retention! What a great point!
Amy, thank you for sharing your positive thoughts. Finally, something organic and personally motivated created a sensational human response✌️
Thanks, Tracy. Nice to hear from you!
Hi Amy – I’ve been mulling this over as well – http://ruthellenrubin.com/polBlog.cfm?doctype_code=Blog&doc_id=9164
Best regards, Ruthellen
Thanks, Ruthellen. I like these points from your post that the Ice Bucket Challenge is doing right:
1. Your solicitor should be someone to whom it is impossible to say no
2. Give your donor choices
3. The “ask” is framed as an opportunity for your donor to feel good
4. Remember that fundraising is not about your organization, it’s about your donor
All good points!
Agreed! For more, read what an ALS family thinks of the challenge: http://www.bostern.com/blog/2014/08/15/what-an-als-family-really-thinks-about-the-ice-bucket-challenge/
And ‘funding cannibalism’????’ Seriously, what BS. If you believe in that kind of lack mentality, fundraising is not the profession for you.
You are so right, Pamela. Thanks for sharing.
Amy, you’re right…any nonprofit professional is green with envy. However, I’m left wanting more once this campaign ends. I hope this is a catalyst for something even greater.
I love that people are getting involved. I’m overjoyed that children are calling out their friends and neighbors and are mentioning ALS. But, more than anything, I want people to dig deep, uncover their charitable selves (through their values), and engage with nonprofits. This campaign could definitely be the first step towards increasing value-based giving. We (nonprofit professionals) need to use this campaign as a shining example of how people can start to get involved. Awareness is the first step to building nonprofit capacity, but engagement and donor retention are critical for nonprofit sustainability.
I look forward to the ongoing conversation. These are exciting times for nonprofits.
I love your enthusiasm. You’re right… how can we help this have a lasting impact? That is the big question.
Totally agree with this perspective and your points, Amy, as well as others. It reminds me in an indirect way about Dan Palotta’s argument for operating costs: if it takes $1M to raise $3M that wouldn’t have been possible without the resources that the $1M employed to raise the $3M, then WHY do so many villify the spending of the $1M? In this instance, the outcome (to-date) is actually even MORE incredible because there was never a $1M marketing campaign or $1M spent on anything related to this challenge. In other words, the ROI on this is phenomenal and completely unprecedented so good for them! Also, I think the “slacktivism” and “moral licensing” points are baseless because we now know that donations by individuals has not grown at all over the past 10 years (or something like that; don’t have those stats at my fingertips but it’s been widely reported in the non-profit sector). So it’s far more likely that the people dumping ice & posting videos are actually doing something altruistic for the first time ever, even if only raising awareness among their circles and not donating.
Hi Cathy – I’m not exactly sure what stats you are referring to, but I agree the benefits outweigh any negatives there might be to this campaign! It’s getting people thinking and acting!
Amy: at least one solid source of the statistic I refer to is the white paper, “Growing Philanthropy in the United States”, by Adrian Sargeant and Jen Sang. Here’s the stat I referred to from this paper which indicates that philanthropy hasn’t grown over the past 40 years, not the 10 that I mentioned:
“In the US, charitable giving is estimated to be only 2 percent of average household disposable (after tax) income (Giving USA Foundation 2011) Regrettably, this is also the 40 year average for this figure, indicating that, despite an increasing marketing effort on the part of nonprofits (Sargeant and Jay 2010), individuals today are no more generous than their predecessors were over four decades ago.”
Anyway, it’s not meant to be negative but rather emphasize the positive value of the ALS ice-bucket campaign that hopefully has created more real donors (because it felt good the first time for many!) and raised awareness as so many have already noted.
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Amy, I agree with you. I think most of us in the nonprofit sector are simply jealous (I know I am, and appreciate that you acknowledge such in your post!).
And as much as it pains me to say this as a fundraiser, I think the awareness gained is the huge point here. What creative, silly thing would my nonprofit’s followers do on Facebook? How can I think outside of the way we generally do things to come up with something creative like this? And maybe, just maybe, get lucky too?
You are so right, Megan. This was extremely creative, outside the box, and lucky!
I just sent this post to my executive team. It occurs to me this highlights the “fundraising doesn’t happen in a vacuum” phrase I find myself uttering, often under my breath. One of my colleagues very passionately stated he thinks this whole thing is absurd, and just a bunch of self-centered idiots posturing on the internet. If he’s going to donate, he’ll just write a check. Well, he’s one kind of donor. Other kinds of donors respond differently. Millennials, who often are called self-centered, and vain – this is right up their alley. And it’s a waste of time and breath to rail against the “Instagram culture.” Of course, in the next breath, I’m asked, can you think up something like this for us? LOL
Great points, Laura. Thanks for sharing!
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