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Selfies For Social Good, 8 Examples

April 9, 2014

Trisha-StezziSelfies, selfies, selfies…face it (pun intended), they are everywhere.  The word selfie was even named Oxford Dictionary’s “Word of the Year for 2013.”  Do you love this pop culture portrait ‘art form’ [air quotes] or hate it? The answer probably doesn’t matter, as there is no escaping this cultural phenomenon. Today I’ll show you 8 examples of do-gooders harnessing the world’s fascination with selfies for the greater good. I’ll selfie to that! The M + R 2014 Nonprofits Online Benchmarks Study just released indicates a 14% increase in online revenue for nonprofits (and a decrease of 11% in email fundraising). Perhaps selfie-related awareness and fundraising campaigns like the ones described below have helped moved the needle a tad bit.

#NOMAKEUPSELFIE RAISES $3 MILLION IN 2 DAYS

£2 million (or $3.3 million) was raised IN 48 HOURS -yes, you read that right- to fund Cancer Research UK by hijacking the #nomakeupselfie photo-sharing trend and focusing it on a meaningful cause.  Via no make up photo shares, people were encouraged to give £3 (about $4) by texting BEAT to 70099.  The effort was so successful so quickly that other health awareness organizations started copy-catting the approach, including the Irish Cancer Society which raised at least £400,000 ($551,760) in donations. It’s no surprise that Sir Richard Branson and the Virgin Atlantic crew got on board with this fresh selfie for good idea. You can read the full #NoMakeupSelfie story here.

#DOGOOD “SELFLESS SELFIE” AT SXSW 2014, SPONSORED BY MASTERCARD

The World Food Programme worked with its corporate partner, Mastercard, to engage SXSW 2014 attendees through a selfie campaign.  Mastercard donated $5 for each “selfless selfie” tagged with #dogood which equates to providing a month of school meals for a hungry child. This campaign raised money while clearly showcasing the direct impact of each donation – bravo!  This is a great example of utilizing a social good element to increase event engagement.

ELLEN’S RECORD-BREAKING OSCAR SELFIE

Surely you have already seen Ellen’s famous record-breaking Oscar selfie (who hasn’t?). But did you know that this celebrity-selfie-seen-round-the-world generated $3M in donations to charity? Samsung, may have caught a little grief for its product placement, but it also earned some social good street cred by quickly opting to donate a dollar for each of the retweets.  St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the Humane Society of the United States each received $1.5M donations to support their important work.  Well played Samsung.  Well played.

#UNSELFIE HASHTAG CAMPAIGN

The #unselfie hashtag campaign encourages individuals to write a simple call to action on a piece of paper – including the URL for where to donate – then take a selfie while holding up the paper sign in front of their face, hence un-selfie-ing.  Unselfish. Brilliant. By the way, that’s my For Momentum colleague, Eileen, being unselfie-ish over there ->

THE NONPROFIT TIMES SELFIE CAMPAIGN ON PINTEREST

The NonProfit Times opted to leverage selfies in a contest designed bring attention to key volunteers and the causes to which they are dedicated. You can learn about The NonProfits Times’ selfie contest on the blog post Selfie-Centered and vote on their Pinterest Board here.  The winning contestant receives a $100 Amex Gift Card.

MORE SELFIE CAMPAIGN EXAMPLES:

Beth Kanter has rounded up a bunch of great examples in her post, Selfies for Good? Or just tapping into a narcissistic trend?, including these three (and more):

  1. The New York Public Library is using selfies as part of its social media initiative to engage library patrons.
  2. National Wildlife Federation launched “If Wildlife Took Selfies” series on Instagram, using photos contributed by National Wild Life Photo Contest entrants.
  3. Johnson & Johnson sponsored a contest where they donated $1 for each selfie photo donated through Donate a Photo.

Photo Credit: “Portrait” by Maciej Lewandowski

Hopefully all these examples will get your organization thinking creatively about how you might be able to hijack selfies, hashtags, or other pop culture and social media-related phenomenons to support your goals.  Like this post?  Sign up for the For Momentum monthly e-newsletter here.

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