Your involvement in the Atheist Bus page, and the Alpha Posters page that followed it, has been amazing.
The Atheist Bus Campaign has caused a real stir and it’s been really exciting to see the debate that’s been happening in your comments here on the blog, not to mention on the page itself.
We’ve had to remove the odd comment that strayed into territory that was downright offensive – in line with our terms of service, we remove any comments that include swearing or promote violence as soon as we find them. But on the whole, the comments on the pages have been in the form of a very healthy exchange of views, which is just what we love to see on Justgiving.
One blog comment linked to a post saying:
“I spent much of the day relishing the joyful good-humour of the comments in the donations thread on Just Giving.”
We’re glad to hear it – great comments are a huge part of what makes your fundraising pages so brilliant.
Above all, what’s really stood out to us over the past few days is the sheer power and possibility of online fundraising that this particular page has demonstrated. Yes, the Atheist Bus page has had a boost from the national press (there’s an interesting piece about it in The Times today), but it’s taken on a life of its own and raised tens of thousands of pounds in a matter of days because anyone, anywhere has been able to join in. At the time of writing, the page is on its way to hitting the £100,000 mark…
The campaign has even got its own Wikipedia page now.
We’ll be delving a bit deeper into the stats next week on the blog, so keep an eye out for that…
In the meantime, we’d like to leave you with a tweet that our usability guru, Liz, spotted this morning:
Atheists put their faith in outdoor advertising - limeduck said
[...] and attempt at flame prevention time. This is an incredible feat of online fundraising. The comments and discussion generated are pretty entertaining. Props to the humanists and atheists for asserting themselves in the [...]
There is probably no god, now stop worrying and enjoy life « Aphra Behn - danger of eclectic shock said
[...] Atheist Bus rides again « The Justgiving Blog Says: October 24, 2008 at 3:25 pm [...]
Fundraising appeal pages on Justgiving « The Justgiving Blog said
[...] a number of different appeals on the blog, all delivered through fundraising pages. Some have been hugely successful, others less so. Delving into why some have raised more money than others is a topic for [...]
Online fundraising lessons to be learnt from the Atheist Bus campaign « The Justgiving Blog said
[...] While most messages on the atheist bus page were good natured, we did have to remove some that were inappropriate and we emailed people to explain that, as well as blogging that message. [...]
Steve Carroll said
Interesting that the atheists had to use a campaign to raise money whilst the church seems to just have that money available. Why is that?