In 2014, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge turned into a viral trend, sweeping across every corner of the world. Celebrities, politicians and the masses took to social media to pour ice cold buckets of water over their heads to raise awareness and funds for people suffering Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). However, 11 years later, the challenge seems to have fizzled out. So, why was it so short-lived and what can other fundraising events learn from it? 

There are 60,000 charities registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profit Commission (ACNC). A quick look at the Australian calendar will show familiar events like Movember, The World’s Greatest Shave, The Push-Up Challenge and many more competing to grab donors’ attention. But with such a saturated calendar and so many different causes for people to donate to, it’s becoming harder for fundraising events to remain viable. 

This year RSCPA’s Million Paws Walk called time on their event after 31 years, citing community fundraising has become more difficult. They’re not alone, many community fundraising events have seen dwindling participant numbers in recent years.  In 2023 the ACNC reported that donations rose to $18.9 billion. However, one single donation accounted for nearly $5 billion of that total. Outside of this, donations only rose by $54 million, which is a steep decline from a $584 million rise in 2022 and a $676 million rise in 2021. The ACNC reports attributed this fall due to rising cost-of-living pressures, and a separate report from KPMG showed that more Australian’s were unable to donate as their expenses rose. 

One organisation noticing these challenges is the Viridian Foundation. In July 2021, when the human resources director for Viridian Financial Group, Rita Agati, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, their philanthropic group, the Viridian Foundation, stepped in to help. 

Michael Ehrentraut, the chair and director of the Viridian Foundation tells upstart, it was a shock to the whole organisation when Agati was diagnosed. 

“One of our pillars is around ‘charity starts at home’, which simply means that if one of our own extended family members goes through something, that puts the whole family in a very vulnerable and uncertain position,” he says. “Our belief is we should rally and support.” 

Within two weeks of Agati’s diagnosis, Ehrentraut decided to create a step challenge to raise funds for pancreatic cancer and support the Agati family. Today, Walk4Rita has raised over $500,000 for pancreatic cancer and had 4,000 people take part in the challenge. Despite the success, Ehrentraut has noticed donor fatigue growing since the challenge began. 

“Four years ago, the average donation was $78.03, and it’s literally been dropping to an average of $10 a year which makes it so much harder to raise either the same amount of funds or increase,” he says. 

As cost-of-living challenges Australians, and appeals for charity become more frequent, people have less to give, so organisations must look to alternative streams of funding. 

“We had to look beyond Viridian,” Ehrentraut says. “The second wave was how do we involve Australian companies and involve sponsors?” 

But it isn’t just the public donating less. Corporate sponsors are pulling back too. 

“Corporates aren’t even funding anymore because their belts are getting tighter to [remain] profitable,” Ehrentraut says. “So, it’s been tough.” 

Alongside the challenges of decreasing donations and funding, Australians are now more interested in a charity or fundraising event that engages them too. 

Tiffany Chan took part in the World’s Greatest Shave for the first time four years ago. She thought it was a good way to do something positive, but in a visible way, she tells upstart. 

“I think it’s quite a bold statement, shaving all your hair off,” she says. “Especially as a girl in society.” 

Charity events that use the body as their form of engagement became the rage in the late 2010s, but are now heavily used by charities, particularly as a way to engage young people. The visibility of the challenges, such as the World’s Greatest Shave, helps create even more awareness for these causes as participants become walking spokespeople. 

These challenges also appeal to people’s desire to do something admirable. Essentially, donating and doing something charitable also psychologically benefits them due to the resulting public approval.  

But it’s not just about doing something visible either, participants want to donate to something that can improve their lives at the same time, such as a challenge that promotes a healthy lifestyle. 

The Push-Up Challenge has participants complete a certain number of push-ups each day for around three weeks of the year. In 2025, participants had to complete 3,214 push ups in 23 days, representing the number of Australian’s lost to suicide in 2023. The challenge has raised $50 million since it started in 2017 and claims that 86 percent of participants had conversations about their mental health following the challenge. 

Nicola Reavley, the principal research fellow at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, undertook a study on the Push-Up Challenge in 2024. Reavley tells upstart that exercise is a way to engage people with mental health, particularly men. 

“They’re not necessarily thinking that they might need mental health support, but they’re happy to engage in a physical challenge,” she says. 

“And it’s a positive message and I think that’s appealing to people.” 

However, some of these challenges can also be short-lived, a viral phase that struggles to maintain people’s attention after they’re finished. It’s something charities and foundations must navigate to keep people engaged. 

Ehrentraut has faced these challenges firsthand, which inspired him to continue with the foundation because “the worst thing you can do is to forget about people” who are struggling.  

One risk of these viral challenges is that people get caught up in the action and excitement, forgetting about the real message. Similar to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, the #NoMakeupSelfie challenge took the internet by storm in 2014. It began in the UK where people began to post selfies without make up on. People were then meant to nominate a friend to post the same and then text HOPE to the number 20222 to donate $5 to cancer research. One week after the challenge began, social media users in the UK had raised one million pounds for Cancer Research UK, and the hashtag had been used 51,000 times on Twitter (now X). 

Today, a search for the hashtag results in thousands of posts, yet there’s no mention of donations for cancer nor are there any tags for friends to take part in the challenge. On top of this, thousands of people donated to the wrong charity during the challenge, sending their money to UNICEF instead of Cancer Research UK. 

It’s not just about creating a challenge that is unique though, with an overly saturated calendar, timing is just as important. Ehrentraut explains that August to December is so busy, it becomes a “a competitive landscape” of “charity walks or runs”. 

“A lot of people have challenged me saying, ‘why are you doing this in July, man? It’s so freaking hard!’,” Ehrentraut says.  

As charities try to maintain or attract new donors with innovative ideas, Ehrentraut says their core values remain the same: to raise awareness for causes close to their hearts. 

“It starts conversations, that’s what you’re trying to achieve,” he says. 

Article: Joshua Grobbelaar is a second-year Media and Communications (Journalism) student at La Trobe University. You can follow him on Twitter @josh_grobbelaar.
Cover photo: Supplied by Michael Ehrentraut.