Neknomination trend “turned on its head” to spark acts of charity
Howard Lake | 23 February 2014 | News
The Neknomination ‘game’ that has reportedly caused at least five deaths, has resulted in a backlash in which some people have tried to turn it into a more beneficial craze.
The original Neknominations involved someone drinking large amounts of alcohol, filming themselves in the process, and then posting the video online, while inviting other friends to do something similar.
RAKnominations
In Johannesburg, Brent Lindeque turned his Neknomination into an act of giving food and drink to a stranger who was washing car windows on the street. He then nominated other friends, asking them to do something similarly beneficial.
The international reaction has been so positive that he has been inspired to set up the #ChangeOneThing Foundation which aims to help charitable organisations in small ways, and facilitate inspirational talks.
Lindeque calls them RAKnominations. Two weeks after posting his first video he reported back on what it had inspired. He said:
“The Change One Thing concept turned Neknominations on its head!”
Random acts of kindness
RAKnominations follows in the footsteps of other random acts of kindness, like Pay It Forward and Free Hugs.
Julien Voinson from Bordeaux has taken a similar approach, donating a McDonalds meal to a homeless man on the street in what he calls ‘Smart Nominations’.
Others have come up with similar ideas. Kevin Martin suggested doing something positive instead of drinking alcohol. He calls it ‘Nominate-donate’.
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Donate & Nominate
James Lucking, 19, and Will Wright, 26, students from the School of Communication Arts in Brixton, decided to swap the idea of drinking a pint (or more) of alcohol to donating a pint of blood.
Their Donate & Nominate campaign has proved popular too.
Donate & Nominate
Mr Lucking told Metro: “Everything about NekNomination is great apart from the alcohol consumption. A lot of people are getting sick of the trend. Donate & Nominate promotes a good cause and you’re not going to get hurt or lose your job.”
ChekNomination
Breast cancer charity CoppaFeel also came up with its positive response to NekNomination, by starting the ChekNominate campaign.
The charity encourages the public to “Grab your smart phone, webcam or camera, take a quick video of yourself checking your boobs and nominate some of your mates to do the same.”
#CHEKNOMINATE from CoppaFeel! on Vimeo.
So, plenty of people and organisations have seen some positive potential in a daft and in some cases lethal viral trend. Are you using a version of Neknomination for positive change? Let us know in the comments below.
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.