Squid Game meets school fundraising
Howard Lake | 14 December 2021 | Blogs
If you thought the online ‘beauty parade’ of distributing grants to charities based on votes or ‘likes’ was dispiriting and ineffecient, it could be worse.
You could find yourself on a rug in the middle of an ice rink in front of a crowd cheering you on, as you scrabbled head-to-head with others over a pile of dollar bills in front of you, to raise funds.
That was the option for some US school teachers recently as they sought to secure a share of cash donations for their school.
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Journalist Annie Todd shared the event this weekend on Twitter.
This was the first ‘Dash for Cash’ at the stadium, with $5,000 on offer. All in one dollar bills, rather than larger denominations, presumably to prolong the competition.
10 teachers walk across the ice (they aren’t wearing skates) to get to the rug on which the cash had been tipped.
They are consenting adults, and they seemed to enjoy themselves – noises from the crowd suggested they did too. They wore helmets, and they ended up with cash.
If they’d shared it equally they’d have had $500 for their school. So that is roughly what they were scrabbling for.
No doubt some fundraisers will argue this is surprisingly similar to many fundraising methods, including grantseeking and corporate fundraising, simply minus the ice and helmets.
Not surprisingly others, including fundraisers, were unimpressed with this public spectacle.
What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Is this on your list now for a corporate partnership or in-person event? Or do you think it would only damage your charity’s reputation?
Is someone already at work on a virtual version of this spectacle? Would you be more comfortable with it if the sum available was substantially larger?
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.