# When harsh words and actions spark positive giving campaigns

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2015/04/23/when-harsh-words-actions-spark-positive-giving-campaigns/
- Published: 2015-04-23T16:49:24+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Some fundraising campaigns come with an additional sense of _schadenfreude_ – not
at the expense of the beneficiaries of course, but at the original instigators.

Some of the best of these appear amongst crowdfunding campaigns, where individuals
have reacted to a problem or injustice with a desire not just to give themselves
but to enable others to support them, in an outpouring of financial restorative 
justice.

## 1. Campaign for victim of crime

There was the example earlier this year when [Katie Cutler raised over £330,000 for Alan Barnes](https://www.fundraising.co.uk/2015/02/02/crowdfunding-campaign-alan-barnes-tops-300k-four-days/),
after being appalled that the 67-year-old, who had had sight and growth defects 
since birth, had been attacked, suffered a broken collarbone, and left in fear or
returning to his own home.

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While his attacker might or might not have appreciated the contrast between his 
actions towards Mr Barnes and those of the 24,800 people who donated to the fund
set up to help him, it proved very satisfying to many people to be able to help,
and indeed to watch this process as the total rose.

## 2. The town that turned a neo-Nazi march into an anti-racism fundraising event

Residents of Wunsiedel in south eastern Germany last year managed to turn a neo-
Nazi march on their streets into a sponsored event to promote tolerance.

The march was an annual event on National Heroes’ Remembrance Day. The neo-Nazis
chose Wunsiedel because it was the original burial site of Rudolf Hess, Deputy Führer
to Adolf Hitler.

A campaign called [Rechts gegen Rechts](http://www.rechts-gegen-rechts.de/) (Rights
Against Rights) was set up to turn the march into a sponsored event to raise funds
for EXIT Deutschland, a charity that helps people leave neo-Nazi groups.

Townspeople pledged to donate for each metre that was marched. As a result, the 
citizens posted motivational posters along the route of the march, offered free 
food (‘Mein mampf’ or ‘my food’ posters appeared – mocking the title of Hitler’s‘
Mein Kampf’), and covered the marchers with confetti at the end.

**The campaign raised €10,000.**

## 3. Gunboats for migrants jibe becomes rescue boats for people

![Izzy Saunder's Justgiving campaign for MSF-UK](https://www.fundraising.co.uk/wp-
content/uploads/2015/04/justgiving-mediterranean-migrants-campaign-201504.jpg)

Izzy Saunder’s Mediterranean migrants fundraising campaign for MSF-UK

The latest example comes from comments in a column in The Sun newspaper by Katie
Hopkins. Amid reports of hundreds of people drowning in the Mediterranean as they
tried to reach the safety of Europe, she wrote that she would “use gunships to stop
migrants”.

Although her column appeared two days before over 700 migrants drowned in the latest
disaster, the number of deaths since January had already far surpassed the same 
period in 2014.

She described migrants as “cockroaches” and [wrote](http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/suncolumnists/katiehopkins/6414865/Katie-Hopkins-I-would-use-gunships-to-stop-migrants.html):

> “Show me pictures of coffins, show me bodies floating in water, play violins and
> show me skinny people looking sad. I still don’t care”.

Izzy Saunders set up both a change.org petition to ask The Sun to stop using Hopkins
as a columnist and a [JustGiving campaign to raise funds for MSF UK](https://www.justgiving.com/Mediterranean-migrants)
to support its efforts to provide search, rescue and medical aid for Mediterranean
migrants.

The campaign aimed to raise £5,000. **It has raised £37,957.50**.

So, if you are stuck for fundraising ideas, look out for news reports of someone
saying or doing something that is an unwarranted attack on the people that your 
charity helps or the changes you seek to make. There are plenty of people who seem
happy to put things right with a donation, if they are asked.