The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has recently taken off on social media, with 2.4 million videos since it began on June 1. The challenge asks you to either donate to the ALS Association, which fights Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, or dump a bucket of ice on your head. Many participants do both. Newsfeeds have been virtually doused in ice, with video after video peppering the social media-sphere. Numerous celebrities have joined in, from Matt Lauer completing the challenge on live television to Shakira nominating Pope Francis to soak his papal vestments.
Despite its popularity, there has been no shortage of concerns about the Ice Bucket Challenge, from questioning the merits of raising awareness versus giving money, to critiquing the amount of water being wasted. Some argue that the Ice Bucket Challenge is another example of “slacktivism” in the digital age, with participants more concerned about building their image than making an impact. Skeptics write that the videos are inherently narcissistic because people want to jump on the bandwagon and show that their video can get even more views than the last.
Critiques aside, the ice bucket challenge has been an example of how nonprofit organizations can mobilize a population around their cause and raise a substantial amount of funds. As of September 2, the ALSA has raised $106 million, compared to the $1.8 million they raised during this same period last year. Many nonprofit organizations have been inspired by this spike in giving and have started to think about how they can yield similar results for their movements.
The Wall Street Journal recently published an article about other health organizations seeking to create similar campaigns. For health organizations, this type of social media campaign makes sense. Their cause has an easily articulated outcome and a clear process to get there: they want to cure the disease. This makes the call to action simple: donate money to fund research. Raising awareness is certainly a component of this metric as well. People tend to gravitate toward this type of cause because they understand what their money is being used for and know the desired result of their donation. A donor can feel confident in her contribution to an ALS charity because she believes the research they fund has the ability to render this destructive disease obsolete.
For nonprofit organizations funding systemic change, a social media stunt campaign alone could not achieve the type of results that the Ice Bucket Challenge has yielded for the ALS Association. Even with public discontent soaring after the recent events in Ferguson, Missouri, there has been no widespread fundraising campaign to stop the violence against black and brown bodies or to counter the militarization of the police. Social media buzz does not necessarily translate to dollars. When confronting social inequities such as these, we are faced with a complex web of causes and symptoms, and simply giving money and moving on will not solve them. This is one reason individuals tend to shy away from funding long-term social change. They do not know where to begin or what to address in order to eradicate discrimination and inequity in our society.
Foundations have the capacity, standing and resources to address some of our most pressing social issues. Money alone cannot curb racism in the United States, nor can funds completely end discrimination of all kinds. However, foundations can help overcome the difficulties that organizers face by funding efforts that tackle complex social challenges. If foundations and other grantmakers apply a social justice lens to their strategies, they’ll be able to support movements that tackle our most profound challenges. Foundations can support nonprofit organizations that serve marginalized communities, as well as allocate resources to supporting community organizing and nonprofit advocacy. In this way, foundations can work toward creating a more equitable society by giving voice and representation to underserved populations. Foundations can also use their clout to bring change-makers together to address social inequity, multiplying the potential for change. Although they might not be able to use an ice bucket, foundations and nonprofits addressing social justice issues have the tools to create a viral movement in philanthropy to end discrimination.
Lia Weintraub is the field assistant at the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Follow @ncrp on Twitter.
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