In this week’s look at charities making a noise on social media we highlight digital campaigns from Age UK, Harrison's Fund and British Heart Foundation.

Age UK and #NotByMySelfie

This week our favourite selfie craze comes from Age UK with #NotByMySelfie. Age UK is encouraging people to take photos of themselves with an older person that they turn to for advice and share it on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, explaining why that person is important, and text a donation.

Marianne Hewitt, head of brand at Age UK, said: “Through our #NotByMySelfie we want to connect with the public in a fun and creative way to help raise awareness of the fact that so many older people are facing later life alone.

The campaign has received support from the comedian Jack Whitehall and singer Pixie Lott and is part of Age UK’s wider campaign about loneliness.

Why we love it: Although not a pioneer of the selfie fundraising ask Age UK has a garnered an impressive amount of support from both celebrities and the general public, demonstrating the craze is not yet anywhere near over.

Harrison’s Fund: who would you give £5 to save?

Last month Harrison’s Fund, which raises money to fund research into Duchenne muscular dystrophy, ran two online adverts with the text: “Would you give £5 to save Harrison from a slow painful death?” One used a picture of a dog and the other used a picture of a child.

It has now shared the click-through rate from the ad, which reveals that the ad featuring the dog was twice as popular as the one with the child. It spread the information using Facebook, Vine and Twitter, to raise awareness of the disparity between the amount of money raised for large animal charities and that for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Alex Smith, founder of Harrison’s Fund, said: “I recognise that our new ad is controversial, but we're pretty confident that it won't adversely affect donations to animals' charities. The UK is a nation of animal lovers and that's something to be proud of. It's just that sometimes the distribution of charitable donations seems, well, a bit bizarre.”

Smith is no stranger to controversial campaigning tactics; last year he ran the ‘I wish my son had cancer’ campaign.

Why we love it: Children and animals are often said to be the easiest causes to fundraise for so pitting one against the other is either brave or foolhardy. At Civil Society News we’re inclined to see it as brave.

 

British Heart Foundation and ‘Wear it. Beat it.’

February is heart month and today BHF is asking people to wear red and raise money for the charity. It has been drumming up support for the campaign and suggesting ways to get involved using its social channels.

It has also been encouraging people to take a #RedLipstickSelfie to raise money.

So far 23,000 people have signed up to take part.

Why we love it: Linking offline and online activity, the campaign is seamlessly joined-up.