When Criticism Turns into Cynicism - Hating on Cause Campaigns

Well, a lot has happened in a week - a video of a Ugandan warlord who enslaves children to become his soldiers becomes viral and he is a household name for 48 hours, Japan remembers the earthquake and tsunami that took so many lives a year ago, and Austin, Texas had it's biggest influx of people ignoring other people in person while communicating with them on their mobile devices for it's annual SxSW (South by Southwest) conference. There is a common thread through these three events, each are attached in someways to a cause related campaign and those campaigns have gathered a lot or very few controversies in the news.

So for those who haven't been able to catch up with the news, here's a quick synopsis on all three:

- Kony2012 is a campaign by Invisible Children to arrest Joseph Kony, a Ugandan warlord, to prevent him from recruiting child soldiers. The campaign garnered global praise and criticism, the latter focused on the organization itself and how a social media campaign won't really change the larger situation that Africa faces that result in people like Kony being able to get away with his actions

- BBH launched a cause campaign to equip the homeless people of Austin with wifi access. All the wifi they sell, they keep the proceeds. Critics slam this as using the poor to serve the rich.

- A year after the Japanese earthquake and tsunami and the rebuilding continues. Thousands are still in government housing and many have wondered why the aid money hasn't gone further. (Pretty similar to what happened with Haiti after their earthquake in Jan 2010.)

Having worked on Cause campaigns through my previous line of work and through volunteering in school, let's just say it's fucking hard to put any charity or charitable work activity together. Those who are smart enough, tough enough and dedicated enough to put a charitable work organization together should receive kudos for their efforts. But like all things that take off and garner attention for good work, the critics sit back and start to evaluate what is not so great about the work. This is fine, constructive criticism will help to improve things, it is when people turn criticism into cynicism that really doesn't help the situation.

From what I've learned from any cause campaign, there are three things you want to achieve (even if you achieve one or two should be considered a success):

1) Awareness - make people understand why they should care about the issue you care about.

2) Educate - make those who care learn more and form their own opinions about the issue and how they can help

3) Action - make those who have formed their opinions take action and participate in the cause by donating, volunteering or paying the information forward.

Critics will still find fault with all of these campaigns and while some do a good job at keeping their evaluations objective, many dive into cynicism. The cynics will have you believe a couple of things:

- fancy films and marketing of issues are poor use of charitable funds

- too many people just read one article and take that position, not really educating themselves on the issue

- LIKE-ing a status or SHARE-ing an article on social media does not make you an activist

- that there are more things to do than an isolated issue (in the example of KONY, it's not about just removing KONY, it's about stopping the crisis that is child abuse and enslavement in Africa)

But let's get real here, there's only so much one can do in a short period of time. Issues cannot be solved overnight, but what causes like KONY does is help show those who have little to no understanding of the issues happening in Africa a small, digestible piece of the overall puzzle and let them investigate for themselves. There's no mistaking the impact that campaign has made in the past week - it has everyone talking. Even by sharing the story via the web, I argue that people have become activists by making people in their network aware of the story that was being told.

I'm also a fan of the work done by BBH to bringing a fresh approach to looking at the issues of homelessness. Sure, it's not helping to solve the issue right there and then, but it brings the faces of those that are homeless to people's attention. People looking for wifi had to go an interact with the homeless people selling it - a situation which would never happen if this transaction never presented itself. It gives the homeless people a voice and an opportunity for others to hear their stories.

Even the most reputable of charitable organizations have trouble with cynics. There will always be those who will try to bring down those who are trying to make a difference in the world. There will always be those that say that the smallest of actions are not what makes the difference. There will always be those that hold a holier than thou attitude when it comes to what causes deserve attention and which ones don't.

So choose to be an optimist when it comes to causes. Yes, there are many out there and you'll be bombarded. Yes, you should always be informed before you donate your money or time. And yes, baby steps have to be taken as you can't solve the entire problem all at once. But when there are people putting their time, energy and passion into trying to make a difference, don't be that asshole who rains on their parade.