We pride ourselves on doing things differently at Invisible Children, and sometimes “different” translates as “crazy.” This week will be one of those times. From November 20-22, the entire staff at IC Headquarters is camping out in the office for 72 hours until we reach a fundraising goal of $500,000. Things are going to get weird.
In preparation for the holdout this week, we thought it was the perfect time to revisit some of IC’s wildest moments:
1) A man in a cage
During our Frontline campaign in 2011, we had a lot of money to raise and not a lot of time to do it. So we locked staff member Timmy in a cage and told the world that they had to donate money to get him out (wait, first know that Timmy happily agreed to be locked in a cage). We filmed the entire thing live until, 8 days and 9 hours later, we freed Timmy from the cage after the #freetimmy campaign got us closer to our goal of $1.8 million dollars. Worth it.
2) Million Dollar Bill$
In January 2010, Chase Bank put one million dollars up for grabs to a select number of charities that got the most likes on Facebook. As one of the charities vying for the prize, we called literally everyone in America to up our Facebook likes (or at least it felt like that). The competition was insanely close, with Invisible Children leading by only a couple hundred votes. In the hours leading up to the deadline, no one slept, ate, or breathed until…..well, you know what happened. We won. At which point everyone nearly passed out from shouting/fist pumping/sleep deprivation/happiness/dehydration.
3) Oprah rescued Invisible Children
In 2009, we did something the world had never done before: thousands of people in 100 cities worldwide abducted themselves on behalf of the abducted, refusing to be “freed” until a celebrity or political figure used their voice on behalf of abducted child soldiers. The catch: activists in each city were not going to leave or be silenced until they were successfully “rescued.” Six days into The Rescue campaign, all cities had been rescued except Chicago. On May 1, hundreds of IC supporters surrounded Oprah’s studio in Chicago until finally, after she couldn’t ignore them any longer, Oprah gave Invisible Children a minute or two to state their case on national television.
4) The Gallon Challenge
It was one of those moments during the 2011 Frontline campaign where you were disgusted beyond belief, yet couldn’t look away. Our staff went all in for the sake of fundraising. Or, should I say, all out.
WARNING! Do not watch if you have a weak stomach. Or if you can’t stomach people losing theirs.
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