Aiza Day
Social media’s popularity has risen in the 21st century – with more and more people primarily wanting to connect, its main purpose is to be able to have a platform for everyone to gain reachability amidst proximity. With social media’s rise nowadays, it has become the best platform on the internet where individuals and businesses often gain an online presence.
Still, with connectivity as the sole purpose of social media, businesses, and non-profit organizations have also utilized the platform to be seen and heard. The effectiveness of social media has become extremely thriving, especially since more and more people use the internet in the technological era. Nevertheless, with online presence, social media has also become a good avenue for fundraising of non-profit entities; hence, a lot of campaigns have been successful due to their use, and even now have been recognized and imitated for better fundraising results.
With this, you might be curious about which social media fundraising campaign became very eminent. Here, we’re giving you some of the most popular campaigns of all time:
Ice Bucket Challenge
We bet you remember some time ago, many common and famous people, including celebrities, were in their backyards pouring ice-cold water on top of their heads and nominating someone to do the challenge – believe it or not, it was in 2014. The #ALSicebucketchallenge started to raise funds for individuals suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The social media fundraising campaign gained attention worldwide, and even Lady Gaga, David Beckham, and other mega-celebs were doing it. Since the start of the campaign, it has raised $100 in a 30-day period, and ultimately $131 million as per the ALS Association. While not a lot of people are aware of ALS, the campaign has successfully made everyone aware of what the disease is; we bet even you did not know about it not until the ice bucket challenge came about and more discussions about the disease came across many social media platforms.
No Makeup Selfie
We are pretty sure your social media is full of selfies other than vacation photos of your friends flaunting their quick getaway in an Instagrammable place abroad. Yet again, in 2014, selfies were not just about beauty effects and filters – it came to be a cancer awareness campaign in the United Kingdom which also garnered attention all around the globe. The campaign was back ridden by Cancer Research UK, where a novelist posted a selfie about cancer; Cancer Research UK then used social media to raise awareness with regards to the health issue, in a way that it does not connect primarily with how selfies are taken, but with how women (and men) can feel good about themselves despite feeling” naked” and vulnerable not having to enhance their faces and posting it for people to see. This resulted in authenticity and self-confidence, which is also relevant to cancer patients, and Cancer Research UK made a connection between posting a #nomakeupselfie to cancer patients correspondingly. By then, the association had raised £8 Million for the campaign, in the hopes of getting more funds for cancer-related research worldwide. Who could have thought that being barefaced on social media can raise funds for cancer patients, right?
Likes Don’t Save Lives
Perhaps we all came across social media posts about having to like a certain non-profit organization to raise funds. However, it was not possible some years ago; likes generated presence, but it wasn’t possible to monetize such likes to raise funds. UNICEF Sweden has utilized social media most bravely back in 2013. As a lot of people have correlated activism with the number of likes, they made internet users realize that it wasn’t enough to help non-profit organizations in raising funds. Hence, they have initiated commercials and Youtube videos, solely proposing how likes do not eventually save lives, thus they need funds to help people in need. Nevertheless, UNICEF has also stated that “Like us on Facebook, and we will vaccinate zero children against polio.”, a stance that rebukes the notion that the number of likes on social media is equal to the number of donations raised. While in the social media world many people believed that awareness can quantify their help to other people, UNICEF didn’t dare to sugarcoat such a case, therefore raising enough funds to vaccinate more than half a million children against polio.
Movember
Have you ever wondered why in November, most of the social media content you see is men (and women) creating content with a moustache? Well, surprisingly, this is a yearly fundraising campaign that happens to raise awareness for men having mental and health issues, such as depression and prostate cancer. This social media campaign has garnered a lot of likes and shares and has even been imitated by commoners and celebrities alike. Nonetheless, it isn’t just about showing different kinds of moustaches, but there’s also a healthy competition going on as to who brings out the most unique or funniest content to raise awareness of such mental and health issues. Consequently, there are also campaigns like #noshaveNovember to boost such a cause, with no intention of stopping. As of today, in the 2020 report in Australia, November has raised $35.5 million already which still lives up to this day. A movement for men every November – that’s #Movember, y’all!
Many fundraising campaigns are now down through social media. With the ever-growing usage of such, the platform is such a great opportunity for non-profit entities able to gain a presence worldwide and raise funds with their campaigns. As of today, a lot of these organizations have devised gimmicks to improve the quantity of the funds raised to cater to different causes, and do not cease to exist as more and more people are now more inclined to doing donations on the internet.
