To some, Charity:Water — both in terms of fundraising success and on-the-ground accomplishment — has been an inspiration; to others, a con job. To some, a success to envy; others to emulate; but to others a ‘success’ to privately hope crashes and burns.

The same mixed reaction could be found with the Ice Bucket Challenge.

And with Kony 2012.

Our loyal reader Franki Ambrogetti is indeed agitated by the schadenfreude he perceives within the charity sector. In an article he sent The Agitator, he’s alarmed at the negativity he perceives as some fundraisers fret about the successes of others, behaving — well — uncharitably.

As we enter a period for reflection, consider Franki’s critique, triggered in particular by the situation with Invisible Children, the organization behind the Kony 2012 campaign (read the links below if you’re not familiar with the circumstances) …

Is Schadenfreude spreading in charities?

Schadenfreude is a German word that means ‘pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others’, literally translated as ‘harm-joy’.

I am convinced that in the world of the good doers, in spite of a vast amount of compassion and sharing, there is also a good deal of schadenfreude. Part could be attributed the harsh competition (too many NGOs and charities for limited attention and resources) and part is the result of an ego-boosting and self-preservation of many professionals and consultants.

I know it is hard to admit that envy and negativity exists in charity. We prefer to believe that nonprofits encourage and support each other and learn from success and failure within the greater common goal of changing the world. And in most cases it is true.

But what I see is that the sector is increasingly formulaic (each one copying the same thing from each other) and, like many other industries, substantially allergic to innovations outside the so-called mainstream ‘fundraising and campaign’ circles.

I don’t know how many know or noticed that Invisible Children (IC), the organization behind KONY 2012 campaign and the most viral video of all the time, will close within 12-18 months.

Who will be happy about the end of IC, apart from obviously Kony and LRA? While irrelevant for many, for others this can generate a subtle feeling of satisfaction. “The criticism is largely based in envy at Invisible Children’s success. Envy? In charity? Yes. There are an awful lot of people out there for whom all of this work is still about their own holiness. They’d rather children remain obscured by criticism of the way in which they’re being made visible”, Dan Pallotta wrote in 2012.

I know several ‘experts’ in the UN and other NGOs were caught off guard and furious at IC. And the worst criticism of all was simply dismissing the campaign as driven by emotions instead of by facts!

It’s incredible the enormous amount of energy, especially from charities and fundraising professionals, that has been spent criticizing KONY 2012 and IC (instead of supporting and praising them). This has also played a big role in destroying the public confidence and trust in IC.

And many of these criticisms are the same we see regarding the #icebucketchallenge and ALS – slack activism, people donate for vanity not for the cause, they’re never going to spend the money, and if they do they will never show how, etc. Envy and schadenfreude expecting that also ALS will fail. Another example – charity:water and their “no overhead” model.

So I assume there would be today a number of people that would feel satisfied or vindicated by the disappearance of IC. Instead this story is tragically more complex and has more lessons for everybody.

There is no question that KONY2012 has been a success – 100 million people viewed the video within six days, 58% of young adults in the U.S., 27% of them heard about KONY through social media.

The success of KONY 2012 is undeniable – 3.7 million pledges, 10,230 monthly donors, $28 million raised in 2012. Thanks to IC a 92% reduction in LRA killings in the last 3 years, 1.8 million displaced people returned to their communities, 2,659 people abducted by the LRA returned to their families in the last four years, 11 Ugandan schools rebuilt, 6,000+ Ugandan scholarships awarded, two bills passed through U.S. Congress.

Why then IC is closing? Income has plummeted from $29 million in 2012 to $5 million in 2013. One of the reasons, as explained by the founders Jason Russel and Ben Keesey, is that Kony hasn’t been captured and therefore it is difficult to keep the same level of engagement and donations every year. “It’s fair to assume that the ALS ice bucket challenge won’t get $100 million next summer,” says Keesey.

I think this is one of the issues with IC. No organization in fact closes because they do not achieve what they promised. NSPCC didn’t close because they didn’t stop the violence against children (Full stop campaign). The UN will not cease their activities because they will not achieve by 2015 many of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The lack of sustainable funds – which is the real cause of the end of IC – relates to the wrong choice of IC to chase big donors and foundations to cover their overheads. With a strategic and focused investment, IC could instead have grown their monthly donor base from 10,000 to 100,000 securing stable, unrestricted predictable funding. Simple math: this would have generated approximately $12 million every year, more than double the funds needed yearly by IC.

And this is why fundraising is so fundamental to achieve the mission of the organization. When I spoke with IC in 2013, I was upset by the way they were abandoning donors and I suggested that they have a huge potential in donors and activists just ready to be converted into regular supporters. But this is another story.

I think that the saddest lesson is that this is a tragedy for the entire nonprofit sector. Because the social capital, the energy and the commitment generated among people around the world (especially 16-25 year olds) through social media, the power of getting the world focused on an obscure issue in Africa – all of this is not simply replaceable with another NGO or another campaign. IC and KONY2012 are and should be an asset and to protect, support and preserve – maybe also to help – but not to ostracize and criticize.

We cannot grow and then abandon thousands of disillusioned young donors and campaigners. We cannot afford to overpromise and under deliver. We should aggressively fight holiness and egos in the charity sector.

We cannot wait until ALS and #icebucketchallenge fails. We have too many issues and promises and dreams to fulfil and we cannot afford any schadenfreude, because we are all going to fail in the eyes of the donors and of the world.

Franki Ambrogetti

Excellent food for thought. Thanks for speaking up, Franki.

Roger and Tom