FAIL: charity giving popularity contests
07:21, 27 January 2010
.. Posted in Communication, Outreach and General Mngmt.. Link
Here's how these charity giving popularity contests work: People join a FaceBook fan page or "friend" an organization somehow or connect with an organization or vote for an organization through little more than clicking on something. The top vote-getter gets money from the contest's sponsor.
The most recent example of this has been the Chase Community Giving contest, which many, including myself, think has been misleading, even a fiasco. This blog reviews some of those criticisms (read the comments on the blog as well). Even Beth Kanter, who is usually much more admiring of these kind of click-and-help initiatives than myself, has turned quite a skeptical eye, with a blog that's filled with terrific links showing why they Chase Community Giving contest was poorly run, why it's NOT the best way to support nonprofits, and lessons other corporations can learn (she blogged about misgivings about the contest earlier as well).
Here's why I hate these contests:
- they are just popularity contests, and the most already-large-and-well-funded charity, or the one with the most newsletter subscribers or Facebook friends, or the one that's the most tech-savvy and knows how to manipulate the most votes, wins. But the top vote-getters rarely are a reflection of the quality of the organizations, in terms of community impact.
- they don't educate anyone about issues or how nonprofits work. No one walks away from all the clicking with more knowledge about why people are homeless, why women die in childbirth in huge numbers in Afghanistan, why the arts are worth funding, etc.
- nonprofits often have to go through several steps just to enter the contest, and for most of those nonprofits, there will be NO return on investment for this time, as there will only be one, or a handful, of winners.
- it turns thinking about nonprofits into a competition. Is a nonprofit theater "better" than an animal shelter? Is a domestic violence shelter "better" than a hospice?
- users rarely look at all of the "competitors"; rather, they go to the voting site, vote for their favorite nonprofit, and move on.
- it gives people and companies a false sense of "I've done something tangible to help others." For most users, they've merely clicked on something; they haven't volunteered their time, contributed money, learned about an issue or become an advocate to family and friends about a cause. In other words, it's slacktivism.
- some corporations will make their philanthropy this one-time event; they will direct all nonprofits looking for grants to their "contest", and if you don't "win", tough luck! Try again next year! For these corporations and their followers, the value of a nonprofit is how many votes it gets, not the work it's doing and the results it's achieving.
- the contests are often misleading, and that reflects poorly on the nonprofits involved, rightly or wrongly.
