Taking Advocacy Upstream

OK! So you may have found a good cause to volunteer for and have done that for a while. During your volunteering, have you ever wondered why a problem related to your cause keeps on coming back? Have you been asking yourself what could be done to overcome that obstacle, or who needs to be approached? Are there other like-minded organizations facing the same challenges which yours could collaborate with? If you find yourself asking these questions, sounds like you are ready to take your advocacy efforts upstream, which is something I have been exploring lately.

Thoughts on the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

If you checked your social media feed as of late, chances are you have come across multiple videos regarding the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, as well as posts critical of this phenomenon. For the record, I was called out on this challenge last month by a fellow HEAL4Life board member, which I accepted both by dumping the ice water on my head along with making a donation. Regardless of your opinion, you cannot deny the success this has meant for ALS, in which over $100 million has been raised in the United States (press release) and $12 million in Canada.

For this post, I will discuss the three main criticisms regarding the Ice Bucket Challenge and how it applies to other recent social media stunts.