Let’s get Social!
I wrote, a blog or two ago, about the reasons why people donate to fundraising campaigns (https://blog.give.asia/fundraising-in-a-digital-age-f481d1147db5). There is much research which points to the fact that fundraising is, fundamentally, a social act. And this makes sense. We are all social creatures. We do what others do; we like what others like; think how others think and sometimes, sadly, we turn our backs where others have already turned away.
A charity campaign with mass media coverage headed by celebrity faces is bound to raise large sums for the cause it highlights. Not only, through media coverage, will that cause be very much at the front of our social consciousness; it also becomes difficult not to be swept along in all the excitement and joie de vivre accompanying a mass charity drive.
To this day I recall the excitement I felt when the four Houses of my school competed to see which house could create the longest line of pennies (to be donated to Children In Need). Up and down the school hall snaked the lines of coppers. I collected pennies for weeks, even insisting that my Dad paid the whole of my 50p pocket money in 1p pieces. And why? Because it made me part of something; we were all doing it. Break times were consumed with excited chatter as we compared how much we had collected, speculated about whether our House would have the most and looked forward to the fun to be had on the day. We were also part of something bigger — this was all in aid of a national fundraising event. We might, if we raised enough, even get our school name on TV!
Not only are we easily caught up in the social act of mass-giving, scientists also tell us that the amounts we give are also directly influenced by the donations made by others around us. There is a reason why the tip cup in your local coffee shop starts the day with a hopeful $2 note in it rather than 50c. People are likely to be influenced by what they see others have donated. None of us wants to make a charity faux pas and give $1 when the going rate is $10.
As we are social creatures it comes as no surprise that we are also likely to engage in a little social one-up-man-ship when it comes to giving. The best time I have found to go around with a collecting tin is most definitely during the after-work Thursday drinks hour. The third to donate in a group of alpha males will always ‘up’ the $10 given by his two previous workmates to $20 — and then the rest of the group will have to follow suit. Doesn’t hurt that there may also be some alcohol involved.
So what happens to those campaigns which don’t have the glitzy profiles? Those that can’t get the band-waggon started? Those where others have already turned away?
Below you’ll find the links to three low-profile fundraising campaigns.
Surely these campaigns, the ones that slip under the radar, are the ones which really need us the most?
Not any longer! I am on the mission to ignite their social buzz. Here; now; I am making them social.
Fancy joining me? Please share this article on your social networks. Please talk about the campaigns with your mates. Pin it. Like it. Tweet.
Let’s make this work. Let’s raise the money these people so desperately need.
Lucy-Ann Dale
