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What does athon mean, and what’s the rational that someone would donate to a cause based on how many times someone performs an unrelated task?
It’s a gimmick. Like the ice bucket challenge, which was recently in the news again because the $115 million raised from the challenge funded research that ultimately led to the discovery of a new gene marker for ALS– a huge breakthrough.
People like to see other people get water dumped on them. It’s funny. That’s what gets them to open up their wallets. If not for the gimmick, $115 million would never have been raised in a single summer. People are happy to give tzedakah, they just need a reason to do it– the goofier, the better.
Of course, some walkathons or bikeathons are nice to support, because then you’re helping people get exercise and stay healthy. But I doubt most people contribute because of that. The “unrelated task” makes the contribution into something larger than just writing a check. It becomes a big event, a PR stunt. And it works.
Is there like a blanket ban on threads started by me? Why are none accepted?
I see one deleted thread. And it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out why
Shayachus?
“they just need a reason to do it– the goofier, the better.”
Its a shame “the cause” isn’t reason enough to give.
I had 3 rejeccted.
apushatayid: Yes, in theory, but there are thousands of causes, all very deserving, and a person’s assets are limited. The walkathons and ice bucket challenges and so forth are done 1) to make a particular cause stand out from all the others and 2) to encourage the donor to give NOW, not just at year’s end, or the next time they get a raise, or on the next holiday, or just stam whenever they feel like it.
I used to work in fundraising. The #1 reason why people donate money is because they were asked. Generally speaking, it’s not going to randomly occur to someone to donate money unless it’s a special occasion, and even then, they’re much more likely to give to a couple of organizations they know well and have been giving to for years, rather than something more random like ALS research.
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