The success of viral campaigns was staggering!
From the ice bucket challenge to no makeup selfies, many campaigns that have taken place over the last few years have increased donations incredibly. It’s been amazing to see how many charities have benefitted from such simple campaigns and millions of generous people all over the world.
So, I wanted to share with you the stories of 5 charity fundraisers that went viral.
Movember
It started off by a group of young men in Australia, in the early 2000s. Then soon spread like wild fire to Europe, South Africa and North America. This event is run by the Movember Foundation in Australia and New Zealand, and worldwide it is managed by various campaigns that benefit national cancer charity foundations. In this event participants are encouraged to grow their moustache to raise awareness for men’s health issues and raise money for charities associated with men’s health. The word Movember came from ‘moustache’ and ‘november’. So, throughout November awareness is raised about men getting regular checkups and keeping a healthier lifestyle. This campaign has raised millions from people all over the world.
No Makeup Selfie
A new trend spread across social media in 2014, the ‘No Makeup Selfie’. This involved participants to take a selfie of their face with no makeup whatsoever. Thousands of people got involved, including celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Jlo and many more! The aim of this campaign was to raise awareness for Cancer Awareness. Both the US and Britain raised millions for the charity.
Jack Draws Anything
In 2011, a young talented artist named Jack wanted to raise money for the Sick Kids Hospital inEdinburgh, where his youngest brother regularly stayed. His fundraising activity was to draw “anything” in exchange for a donation to the hospital’s Friend’s Foundation.
Jack’s fundraising target was to reach £100, which he exceeded tremendously by raising £64,000. Jack’s fundraising went viral and so did his website.
The Ice Bucket Challenge
This campaign was one of the most viral ones yet. It involved throwing freezing cold water over their head or donating to a cancer charity. This trend reached high up in the media industry where celebrities started to join in too. Millions of people took part and posted their video on social media, resulting in around 100 million dollars donated to charity.
San Francisco Batkid
This has got to be one of my favourite viral fundraising campaign so far. A sweet little boy suffering from Leukaemia told the Make-a-Wish Foundation that he wanted to be Batkid for the day. So the emails went out to some volunteers to help out and through the powers of social media, it turned in to a huge event for the young Miles Scott. Over 12,000 people turned up to help out and support him. The day’s event included an actor to run around the city fighting crime with Miles. Both dressed as Batman, they stopped a bank robbery, caught the ‘Riddler’ and ‘Penguin’, included a police escort, a chase and rescuing captives. Not only this, Miles met the Major of the city, got the ‘key’ to ‘Gotham city’ and got a tweet from the then US President, Barack Obama. This event was filmed professionally and then posted on Youtube where it received hundreds of thousands views. Best of all it showed the great support from Make A Wish Foundation and how amazing people come together to help one another.