Have you considered doing something that could go viral like the Ice Bucket Challenge? The potential upside from that would make it worth a shot for the effective altruist community.
We tried this—a selfie on facebook with malaria nets on our heads. We asked for £3 to cover a net (a bit of a lie as nets cost less I think). We got 6 other people to do it then it fizzled out. This was something tried in the context of the ALS challenge as a counter-cultural thing.
What I think would help if this was going to be attempted again (but I think people are over it now to some extent, unless a new social norm is being seen as being challenged / it feels qualitatively different):
-A much easier way of paying
-A more dramatic request
-People with more friends on facebook
-People with friends that are more likely to do it starting it
I think that after a very successful fundraiser happens, it’s tempting to try out the same thing for your cause/charity. But it’s really important to consider how many viral challenges were attempted before (and since) one worked effectively. There were a lot of charities who worked on viral videos after Kony 2012 but none got even close to as big. I would expect the same to be true of the ice bucket challenge.
All that being said, if it’s easy to add a viral element that does not take away from the fundraiser in other ways we would definitely integrate it.
Not yet, but we are currently considering that for the local groups fundraiser specifically, because some of them are quite keen on it. The viral potential is another argument for running this fundraiser, though in fairness I should say that I’m considerably more sceptical about whether this is worth pursuing than those groups. However I generally find myself assigning lower chances to these large upside possibilities than most EAs, so I suspect this may be a mistake on my part.
I’d actually find others’ takes on all this valuable—does anyone have any?
Have you considered doing something that could go viral like the Ice Bucket Challenge? The potential upside from that would make it worth a shot for the effective altruist community.
We tried this—a selfie on facebook with malaria nets on our heads. We asked for £3 to cover a net (a bit of a lie as nets cost less I think). We got 6 other people to do it then it fizzled out. This was something tried in the context of the ALS challenge as a counter-cultural thing.
What I think would help if this was going to be attempted again (but I think people are over it now to some extent, unless a new social norm is being seen as being challenged / it feels qualitatively different):
-A much easier way of paying
-A more dramatic request
-People with more friends on facebook
-People with friends that are more likely to do it starting it
Thanks for the suggestion, Ervin. We have thought about this idea before. It is worth noting that The Life You Can Save tried this http://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/Blog/ID/138/Worm-vs-Worms-a-social-media-stunt-that-saves-lives and vegans also tried it via http://www.vegan.com/videos/hydrate-donate/
I think that after a very successful fundraiser happens, it’s tempting to try out the same thing for your cause/charity. But it’s really important to consider how many viral challenges were attempted before (and since) one worked effectively. There were a lot of charities who worked on viral videos after Kony 2012 but none got even close to as big. I would expect the same to be true of the ice bucket challenge.
All that being said, if it’s easy to add a viral element that does not take away from the fundraiser in other ways we would definitely integrate it.
Not yet, but we are currently considering that for the local groups fundraiser specifically, because some of them are quite keen on it. The viral potential is another argument for running this fundraiser, though in fairness I should say that I’m considerably more sceptical about whether this is worth pursuing than those groups. However I generally find myself assigning lower chances to these large upside possibilities than most EAs, so I suspect this may be a mistake on my part.
I’d actually find others’ takes on all this valuable—does anyone have any?