Post by Jessica Clarke on Oct 8, 2014 19:34:23 GMT -5
This summer there was fundraising phenomenon which swept social media off its feet. Unless you live under a rock you all must have seen or heard about the ALS ice bucket challenge. I woke up and did my morning scroll down my instagram page and five posts in a row had one similarity, people pouring a bucket of ice water on their heads. This left me dumbfounded and confused because I simply didn’t understand until I did a little research. ALS stands for Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and is also often referred to as Lou Gehrig Disease”, it is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affect nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, it can lead to becoming totally paralyzed and even death according to ALS.org
The interesting thing about this is that when it started it was in no relation to any charity. According to TIME Chris Kennedy a golfer in Sarasota,FL was nominated by a friend to participate in the ice bucket challenge, which had nothing to do with the ALS. Kennedy’s friend had selected a charity that benefits a young child with cancer in the area. Kennedy, passing the challenge along to his wife then selected ALS because a relative is suffering from the disease. When Kennedy posted this video it appears to be the first time ALS and the ice bucket challenge were linked.
For those who don’t know what the ice bucket challenge is, it is a viral challenge which is simply posting a video of getting a bucket of ice cold water and pouring it over your head and then nominating someone else to do it next and if you do not accept the challenge you have to donate money to ALS (most people donate money even if they accept the challenge though) According to the Huffington post in August alone the challenge raised $100 million in donations. It captured the collective imagination of social media users across the world. This was a great and successful fundraising idea because it made it fun and easy for everyone to participate, and everyone from Oprah to Lebron James participated which simply just made it cool to do and it was for a good cause.
As we learnt in our google hangouts I believe that developing a relationship with your audience and community is important. When money is involved there has to be a trust that is there. I do believe that the ALS challenge being done by celebrities’ provided a sense of security to others donating however I do think that the ALS organization did have the trust of the community and its donors. Something that also stuck out to me was in the Spark Mill google hang out when they mentioned having a defining purpose. ALS’ defining purpose was to provide treatment and advance research in effort to fight against ALS. It also spread awareness because a lot of people who posted these videos posted facts and information about ALS and there purpose of doing the challenge which spread awareness. I think it is a great fundraising strategy and has gone above and beyond the expectations that they had.
Sources:
www.huffingtonpost.com/r-kay-green/7-reasons-why-we-are-fasc_b_5945010.html
time.com/3136507/als-ice-bucket-challenge-started/
www.alsa.org/
The interesting thing about this is that when it started it was in no relation to any charity. According to TIME Chris Kennedy a golfer in Sarasota,FL was nominated by a friend to participate in the ice bucket challenge, which had nothing to do with the ALS. Kennedy’s friend had selected a charity that benefits a young child with cancer in the area. Kennedy, passing the challenge along to his wife then selected ALS because a relative is suffering from the disease. When Kennedy posted this video it appears to be the first time ALS and the ice bucket challenge were linked.
For those who don’t know what the ice bucket challenge is, it is a viral challenge which is simply posting a video of getting a bucket of ice cold water and pouring it over your head and then nominating someone else to do it next and if you do not accept the challenge you have to donate money to ALS (most people donate money even if they accept the challenge though) According to the Huffington post in August alone the challenge raised $100 million in donations. It captured the collective imagination of social media users across the world. This was a great and successful fundraising idea because it made it fun and easy for everyone to participate, and everyone from Oprah to Lebron James participated which simply just made it cool to do and it was for a good cause.
As we learnt in our google hangouts I believe that developing a relationship with your audience and community is important. When money is involved there has to be a trust that is there. I do believe that the ALS challenge being done by celebrities’ provided a sense of security to others donating however I do think that the ALS organization did have the trust of the community and its donors. Something that also stuck out to me was in the Spark Mill google hang out when they mentioned having a defining purpose. ALS’ defining purpose was to provide treatment and advance research in effort to fight against ALS. It also spread awareness because a lot of people who posted these videos posted facts and information about ALS and there purpose of doing the challenge which spread awareness. I think it is a great fundraising strategy and has gone above and beyond the expectations that they had.
Sources:
www.huffingtonpost.com/r-kay-green/7-reasons-why-we-are-fasc_b_5945010.html
time.com/3136507/als-ice-bucket-challenge-started/
www.alsa.org/
