Social media fundraising 2014: meme-raising!
Howard Lake | 18 October 2014 | Blogs
Social media fundraising recently has all been about “meme-raising”.
What’s a meme? It’s an image, text or video that is copied and spread rapidly across the internet. Meme-raising is then raising money through that meme. Charities have had some significant successes over the last 12 months with raising money from these campaigns – here are a few examples:
• #nomakeupselfie – Women taking selfies with no makeup and posting them on social media – raised over £8m for CRUK
• #wakeupcall – Celebrates and other taking a selfie first thing in the morning to raise awareness of what’s happening in Syria for UNICEF UK.
• #hoppihavet – a hugely popular campaign for Norwegian Cancer Society. The concept was you had to jump into the freezing ocean or donate. The charity staff then also then jumped into the sea to say thanks for donating.
• #icebucketchallenge – challenged by a friend to pour iced water over your head or donate to ALS.
Which one is the odd one out?
One of the above is different from the others…
The answer is #wakeupcall for UNICEF UK. What’s interesting is that the other three were all started by an individual who had nothing to do with the chosen charity and then it was the charity who then got onto the back of the trend and maximised it. The concept for #wakeupcall was different in that it originated from UNICEF UK.
Often it is much harder to get your own version out there and make it viral, for every successful one there are thousands that do not get traction.
So as a charity, are you ready for the next big opportunity? We can’t control it – not the when or the what, but we can be ready to tap into it. What’s clear is that it is important to be quick and agile to adapt within hours of the meme taking off so you can get on board and drive the donations to your charity rather than a competitor…
Vicky Reeves is Deputy Managing Director of WPN Chameleon – the leading digital and direct marketing agency for the NFP sector.
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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.