Ice Bucket Challenge - F&P article

special feature – digital fundraising & marketing
Riding the Ice Bucket Challenge wave
A campaign going viral on social media would be a dream come true for many charities, but what is it like when
it actually happens? Rachel Rizk reveals how MND Australia’s tiny team fared from the Ice Bucket Challenge.
A
wave of people in America dousing
themselves for different causes started a
tsunami in July 2014. That’s when former
Boston College baseball player, Pete Frates, and his
athlete friend Pat Quinn, came up with the idea of
using buckets of ice water as a platform to raise
awareness for ALS/motor neurone disease (MND)
– a terminal neurological disease they both have.
After the two men posted their challenge online,
the Ice Bucket Challenge quickly spread through
Pete’s network of professional sportspeople. And
then it went viral.
Within weeks the ripple effect was felt across
the globe as millions joined in the ALS/MND
Ice Bucket Challenge. By August 2014, via the
International Alliance of ALS/MND Associations,
the social media phenomenon reached Australia,
where over 60,000 people took part.
When it began to gain momentum in Australia,
MND Australia faced its own challenge – how
would a small team of 2.3 full-time equivalent staff
keep up with and leverage this once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity to raise awareness and funds for MND?
The value of a mobile optimised website
“Given the frenetic pace of the Ice Bucket
Challenge,” says national executive director of
MND Australia, Carol Birks, “We chose to focus our
resources on using our existing communication
tools and channels to leverage from the campaign.
With MND in the global spotlight, we ensured that
our online presence was timely and dynamic.”
This was where the timing of the Ice Bucket
Challenge itself “was a dream come true,” adds
Birks. “If it had been 12 months earlier we would
have missed the opportunity.”
Having noticed increases in mobile traffic
through Google Analytics, serendipitously the
organisation had just invested in a mobile
optimised website, developed using money raised
by the Commonwealth Bank Enterprise Services
team in their “Wake up after winter” fundraising
campaign. The mobile website launched in April
2014, complete with a PayPal giving option on the
donation form.
At the Ice Bucket Challenge’s peak, there were
40,000 web sessions and in one 24-hour period
alone, over $200,000 in donations flowed in – 40%
from mobile devices.
Managing the challenges – with
supporters’ help
As the national peak body for MND, MND Australia
In Australia over 60,000 took part in the Ice Bucket Challenge including the Menzies Research Institute.
concentrated on strategically challenging its
members: the State MND Associations, associate
member MND NZ and the research community. The
Challenge was taken up with gusto, demonstrating
the solidarity of the MND community. With MND
Australia’s website being the organisation’s
principal marketing tool, webpages were developed
to provide background information about the
Challenge and instruct people how to get involved.
MND Australia and State MND Associations
received a large number of interview requests from
television, radio, newspaper and online publications.
The spokespeople used these opportunities to talk
about the serious side of the Ice Bucket Challenge
and promote key organisational messages.
The primary communication obstacle during the
Challenge stemmed from the inconsistency in the
disease’s name. MND is known as ALS – the most
common form of motor neurone disease – in some
parts of the world including America. Despite MND
Australia’s efforts to educate the media in its role
as trusted provider of MND information, the ALS
label was never fully shaken in Australia.
MND Australia has continued to address this
issue by creating a new video that explains the
two names and features on the MND Australia
homepage.
As the campaign unfolded in the US, MND
Australia’s staff also kept an eye on Twitter to
identify emerging criticisms, especially those
related to how the windfall would be spent.
Anticipating similar concerns in Australia, a
webpage was created to address these issues. A
video featuring MND Australia’s President, David
Ali, was also produced to thank donors and assure
them that their donations would be put to good
use to support MND care and research.
It was impossible for MND Australia’s staff
members to monitor all issues on the internet and
in the media. However, help was at hand. “Over
the last few years we have focused on building
a passionate and engaged online community,”
says Birks. “Our Facebook fans became an army
of advocates: quick to correct misinformation and
reprimand anyone who had a bad word to say
about the Ice Bucket Challenge.”
Keeping up the engagement online
The Ice Bucket Challenge was listed in the top 10
trends of 2014 rated by both Facebook and Google.
At its height #IceBucketChallenge was trending
on Twitter and MND Australia’s Facebook posts
reached over half a million people in a single day.
Hundreds of people shared their icy videos on
20 | F&P Magazine | June / July 2015 Insight, analysis and inspiration for nonprofit executives and leaders

the MND Australia Facebook and Twitter pages. In recognition of their support,
MND Australia thanked each person and shared the best videos with fans and
followers. By the end of the campaign, the number of MND Australia Facebook
fans had grown from 2,700 to over 7,000 and there was a sharp increase in
Twitter followers from 980 to over 1200. The vast majority of these people are
still connected.
During the Challenge around 5,000 people subscribed to receive MND
Australia’s e-newsletter – and they are shaping its performance. “Before the
Ice Bucket Challenge most of our newsletter subscribers had been personally
touched by MND and had a vested interest in our activities,” says Birks. “Our
bimonthly newsletter is still attaining excellent open rates of 35–40%, but our
click-through rate has halved to around 5%. There has also been an increase in
the number of unsubscribes.”
“When writing the e-newsletter we now have to bear in mind that our new
audience is less familiar with MND and less committed to the cause,” she
adds. “We keep them engaged by providing regular updates on how their Ice
Bucket Challenge donations are improving the lives of people with MND.”
More than a one-off $2.5 million windfall
The Ice Bucket Challenge raised over $2.5 million for MND Australia from over
60,000 donors. This has enabled new research grants, funding to support
a national MND registry of patient information to assist with research and
patient care, and has supported services provided to people with MND by
Australia’s State MND Associations.
It has also provided a boost to the MND community and been the impetus
behind several new awareness campaigns and collaborations that are keeping
up the momentum and heightening MND awareness like never before.
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One is the organisation’s first national awareness campaign to span TV and
radio, which launches in May. This has been initiated by Bernice Atlee who is
living with MND and felt inspired to continue the momentum of the Challenge
by supporting MND research.
“She contacted us and has been instrumental in using her connections to
recruit pro bono support from creative and mainstream media agencies whose
expert skills we would not have been able to afford,” says Birks. “She also
secured sponsorship from Harvey Norman to air a TV advertisement voiced by
Peter Overton and starring a dad from Kiama, NSW, who is living with MND.”
In August, MND Australia will also take part in a worldwide effort by ALS/
MND organisations to repeat the Ice Bucket Challenge. While recognising it
may not have the same power as a campaign prompted by the public, MND
Australia views it as a great chance to try to re-engage people. It will also be
an opportunity for ALS/MND Associations globally to report on how the funds
raised in 2014 are being spent.
“The enthusiasm and camaraderie that has been roused by the Ice Bucket
Challenge attests the massive impact that MND has on the lives of those with
the disease as well as their loved ones,” says Birks. “The Ice Bucket Challenge
provided a voice and hope for people living with ALS/MND worldwide and
marks a turning point for MND.”
Rachel Rizk
Rachel Rizk is communications and information manager at Motor
Neurone Disease Australia.
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Insight, analysis and inspiration for nonprofit executives and leaders F&P Magazine | June / July 2015 | 21