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Charities often plan fundraising campaigns for months, with agencies, slogans and budgets. The most successful fundraising drive for the nerve disease ALS was not planned. It grew out of a game that was already under way and out of a few people who gave it a direction. Sun Tzu compares effective force to a torrent that sweeps even stones along with it. The Ice Bucket Challenge was such a torrent – and an example of the Potential of the Situation.
A game without a goal
Situation
Even before 2014, a “Cold Water Challenge” is making the rounds on social media. Those who are nominated jump into cold water or donate, for example to cancer research. In early 2014, a foundation for firefighters uses the campaign to raise money, and at the end of June a Golf Channel program picks it up on television. In the summer of 2014, the golfer Chris Kennedy accepts the challenge and nominates his cousin Jeanette Senerchia. Her husband, Anthony, has had ALS for 11 years.
Link to the principle
The energy is there before ALS enters the picture. People want to join in, be seen and challenge others. What is missing is a direction. With Kennedy’s nomination, the movement gains a purpose. The potential does not have to be generated. It only has to be steered.
People who give the stone a push
Situation
Shortly afterward, Pat Quinn, an ALS patient from Yonkers, New York, who is connected with the Senerchias on social media, picks up the campaign and calls on the people around him to take part. A little later, Pete Frates from Boston, a former baseball player at Boston College who also has ALS, takes it up. Through their networks, the challenge spreads within a few weeks. Celebrities from sports, politics and entertainment join in. More than 1.2 million videos are shared.
Link to the principle
The potential of a situation needs a push in the right place. Quinn and Frates had credibility, large networks and a personal story. Their push came in a summer in which social media responded to exactly this kind of format: short, funny, with nominations. What decided it was not the size of the push but the slope of the terrain.
The association steps in
Situation
The ALS Association, the major ALS organization in the United States, takes up the wave. From July 29 to August 21, 2014, it receives $41.8 million from more than 739,000 new donors. In the entire fiscal year ending in January 2013, it had received $19.4 million. On August 29, 2014, the association reports that donations since July 29 have passed the $100 million mark. Worldwide, more than $115 million is raised in 2014 for the fight against ALS.
Link to the principle
The association does not fight for control of the campaign or set up a campaign of its own alongside it. It steps into the existing movement and makes it easy to turn attention into a donation. That is the core of the principle: you don’t have to own a situation in order to use it.
From the moment to research
Situation
According to a 2015 report by the association, around $77 million, about two-thirds, goes to research. In July 2016, the ALS Association reports that researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School have identified NEK1, another gene associated with ALS, partly funded by the challenge. The international research project Project MinE receives $1 million.
Link to the principle
Making good use of the potential of a situation does not end with the moment. The association translates one summer’s donations into long-term research. So the wave leaves behind more than videos.
The wave cannot be repeated
Situation
In August 2015, ALS organizations try to relaunch the challenge as an annual campaign. The association reports around $1 million for 2015. According to a survey, only 14% of the 2014 donors give again. There is criticism from the start: water use during the drought in California and the accusation that taking part replaces giving.
Link to the principle
The potential of a situation cannot be produced to order. In 2014, novelty, personal stories and a summer of social media came together. In 2015, the slope was missing. The same campaign was now lying on level ground.
Key takeaways
Key lessons
- Watch for movements that are already under way before you start your own.
- Give existing energy a direction instead of working against it.
- Make it easy to turn attention into action.
- Secure what a moment yields for the long haul.
- Don’t count on repeating a lucky moment at will.
Summary
The Ice Bucket Challenge was not a campaign plan but a game that was already under way. Chris Kennedy, Pat Quinn and Pete Frates gave it a direction; the ALS Association stepped into it and turned attention into donations. The association alone received more than $100 million in one month, and a large part of it went to research. A year later, the attempt to repeat it showed the limit: you can use the potential of a situation, but you cannot order it.
Sources
- Sun Tzu: Die Kunst des Krieges (in German). Edited by James Clavell. Munich: Droemer Knaur, 1988.
