Social Fundraising with the Ice Bucket Challenge

The social fundraising landscape is constantly evolving. What was once not possible is being implemented by many charities and non-profits today. We wanted to take a look at one of the most successful campaigns – the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge movement – a year later and examine a couple of ways the campaign could have been improved to raise more.

We recently came across an article in the Des Moines Register that takes a look into the life of Bozo and Zinaida Tadic’s daily life. Bozo lives with ALS and the article discusses the recent year since the Ice Bucket Challenge took off last summer and how it’s affected the family.

According to the article and the ALS Association, more than 17 million people contributed to the phenomenon with videos on Facebook. This ultimately led to more than $115 million in donations nationally. The Iowa chapter alone was able to double their yearly goal due to the Ice Bucket Challenge

Social Fundraising – What Could Have Been Done Differently?

The Ice Bucket Challenge was a huge success. It made a huge impact in the awareness of the disease and ultimately led to a successful fundraising campaign. But it was this challenge that led Total-Apps to wonder how fundraising could be improved. How can fundraising, particularly in Facebook, be done differently?

We believe that the more steps a donor has to take to make a donation, the more likely it is that they will ultimately not convert. It’s exactly the same as eCommerce conversions. Less clicks = higher conversions.

There are many tools on the market to increase customer conversions with your fundraising campaign, and Total-Apps happens to offer a few unique tools. One key element of the Ice Bucket Challenge was that discussion occurred within Twitter. While videos may have been absent due to Twitter’s format, the discussion was present. #Twt2Pay allows for donations via hashtags, making the #ALSIceBucketChallenge hashtag a unique way to convert donors.

Video Checkout is another Total-Apps service that goes hand in hand with a campaign like the Ice Bucket Challenge. Video performs extremely well when it is at the center of the campaign. By including a video that highlights the best of the best, the ALS Association could incorporate video with donation overlay anywhere video is embedded.

The bottom line? The landscape is constantly evolving and you need to keep with up social fundraising tools to put you ahead of the curve. We’re hoping the next social charity phenomenon uses some of the above mentioned tools to take donations within the social feed. What are your thoughts? What tools have you soon used by charities that are game changing? Comment below and let us know.