Selfies raise money, awareness for charities

Selfies fill up many social media feeds, but more and more often, those quick pictures are also being used to raise money for charity.

From the Ice Bucket Challenge to Movember, social media campaigns raise billions

Bruce Chambers for CBC News Posted: Jun 03, 2015 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: June 3, 2015

Beyonce is one of several celebrities known for posting photos without makeup. (Beyonce/Instagram)

Selfiesfill up many social media feeds. But more and more often, those quick pictures are also being used to raise money for charity.

When Bill Gates took a selfie last summer,his image wasviewed over 20million times.

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The Ice Bucket Challenge wasa hugesuccess,and right from the start, celebrity involvement drove huge buzz on socialmedia. In the end,the campaign raisedabout a quarter of a billion dollars globally.

Here's a successful British selfie campaign from a year ago.

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This campaign illustrates how the combination of Millennials,selfies and social mediaseems to naturally evolve toward fundraising. Initially, there was no charity involved.Women just started daring each other to post selfies without makeup in an odd kind ofanti-narcissistic narcissism.

Eventually, the Millennial urge to do good kicked in, andparticipants started donating. The charity that emerged was Cancer Research U.K.,which ended up receiving over 8 million.

Now, here's an example of a campaign launched in the pre-selfie, pre-social-media ageof 2003, which exploded when selfies and social media were added to the mix.

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Dares, celebrity participation and narcissism were again huge factors in Movemberraising over half a billion dollars for men's health.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International in Canada discovered that selfies could play yetanother important role in fundraising. During face-to-face canvassing, if the donoragreed to taking a selfie with the canvasser, that donor was 10 per centmore likely to still besupporting Amnesty a year later.

Even when there's a risk of creating a less than flattering impression ofthemselveswell beyond simply going without makeupsome people are still willing topost selfies.

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Earlier this year, a charity called Mind encouraged people to post mental health selfiesto let people with similar challenges know they're not alone.

Without a doubt, selfie campaigns raise a huge amount of money. But some fundraisingprofessionals are concerned by the number of people who post selfies without making adonation, thinking that participation alone is enough.

Here's how last year's Lemon Face Challenge addressed that issue.

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A German hunger charity encouraged people to take selfies of themselves eating awhole lemon, and specified that participants should make a 5 donation, rather thensimply letting them decide the amount and whether or not to give at all.

While selfies and social media seem to be tailor-made for fundraising, there's still onefinal concern with such campaigns. Unlike Bill Gateswho made a point of raisingawareness of the charitymany selfie campaign participants don't mention the charityat all, and simply raise awareness of themselves.

Bruce Chambers is a syndicated advertising columnist for CBC Radio.

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Selfies raise money, awareness for charities

From the Ice Bucket Challenge to Movember, social media campaigns raise billions

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