Munay’s crowdfunding campaign
At Christmas 2020, I saw an online crowdfunding campaign that deeply touched me — the one for Munay. He was born with countless limitations due to hydrocephalus and facial paralysis.
And that same week, I took part in a meeting with an institute that conducts research on giving in Brazil. It left me quite reflective.
In that survey, they asked people what they think of those who talk about their donations. 87% of respondents said they dislike it or don’t find it a graceful thing to do.
But it should be talked about, and I’ll explain why.
There is a phenomenon called the “herd effect”, a tendency to repeat actions performed by other people. If one person donates and talks about it, they set a reference for another to donate, and so on. As the fabulist Aesop already said: “In union there is strength.”
If nobody speaks up, if the subject isn’t discussed… it gets forgotten, or never even known. The subject isn’t thought about or questioned. And the goal here is to spread it to more people so they do the same.
And then, on the day I left that meeting, I received an email about the fundraising movement to help Munay, asking those who had already donated to help by posting about the campaign on social media.
So here I am, saying that I donated, that I want to help — and also encouraging you: if you were touched in any way and can contribute, contribute.
10 reais is, always was, and always will be money!
What the numbers say
Why is it important to donate — and to say you did? Because if everyone around you is donating and you’re not, you stop and ask yourself: why am I not donating?
There’s the herd effect, where we do what other people are doing. Marketing makes heavy use of it.
I ran an analysis using the Pesquisa Doação Brasil survey released in 2022: 48% of Brazilians donated some amount of money. Emergency situations account for 13% of the donations made. And we know that a tragedy like the one in Rio Grande do Sul ends up affecting all of these fronts.
Digging a little deeper, I used the 2020 edition, which related to the pandemic. It had the following question: if the pandemic hadn’t happened, would you have made a financial donation? 11% wouldn’t have donated if not for the pandemic. And 19% would have donated less. So it’s important that we donate in moments like these.
Contributing is different from taking advantage
We can also see that some brands exploit these moments. That’s a very sad part, and we have to stay alert, because it’s one thing for a brand to contribute. It’s another for it to take advantage.
We know we’re influenced, when choosing a brand, by whether or not it supports social causes. It’s one thing for a brand to donate and say it donated. It’s another to make the donation conditional: for every new product sold, I’ll donate this much. Stimulating sales, exploiting the moment. That is very ugly, very sad. Brands cannot take advantage of a situation like this.
Whoever gives shouldn’t take advantage
Donate, say you donated, and set that movement in motion. Normalize it as everyday conversation, something ordinary.
Because it’s not how my parents put it in my childhood — that whoever gives shouldn’t talk about it. I think what needs to happen is: whoever gives shouldn’t take advantage of it. And making the culture of giving something normal is long overdue.
After all, how many times in life have you been helped? I don’t mean financially. Sometimes someone invited you into a meeting, or helped promote you somewhere, or helped you get to college. We are helped. Which means: someone donated time — sometimes resources too, but time, attention.
The culture of giving, in its many forms, needs to be normalized.
Originally published on my Instagram in March 2021 and May 2024.