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Wednesday Oct 29, 2008
A fundraising success story for the internet age
I'm sure you've all picked up on the British Humanist Association's campaign to raise £5,500 in order to run some ads on bendy buses in London.
To give you a brief summary - they reached their fundraising target by 10.06am on the first day of their campaign. As I write, they have now raised over £112,000.
This is obviously a hugely successful campaign, but one of the things I love the most about it is how it began, and the completely pivtoal role the web has played in it's success. The idea for the campaign came from Guardian journalist Ariane Sherine back in June this year. Pledgebank was then used to generate more support for the campaign, their justgiving page was set up (check out the Justgiving blog for some great stats on the number of donations) - and the result is a smashed fundraising target, acres of press coverage and a spate of similar pledges on Pledgebank.
Whatever anyone thinks about the campaign, it couldn't have happened in a pre-internet age.
Imagine the resource that would be needed to get this up and running using the phone, a pen and some paper. I also think that many fundraisers will be surprised that so many people have donated towards an advert on a bus - as opposed to wells, mosquito nets or vaccines.
So, whilst the end product (an ad on a bus) isn't particularly emotive, it is very tangible, it clearly resonates with many people and, most importantly for me, the campaign has created a sense of togetherness and being "in it together" to create something new.
Posted by Sam Thomas ( 10:01 AM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
