Amanda Rose

Last weekend I invited Twestival volunteers from around the world to join me in a conversation about the future of our campaign. It was fantastic to be able to share my thoughts so openly with people united in a similar spirit - to bring their communities together in support of great causes. I promised that I would recap our discussion in order to give those unable to participate an opportunity to voice their opinion and offer feedback. 

(Photo: mural painted during Kota Kinabalu Twestival, 2011)

The Twestival journey for me started in September 2008 with a single event in London and it was a remarkable time to be launching something as part of the fast growing Twitter ecosystem. Over the last three years I have been humbled to lead four successful global campaigns and together, Twestival has raised $1.75 million, impacting over 275 charities.

In 2009, we showed the world that Twitter can be used to create real world action by uniting around charity: water and their goal to bring clean and safe drinking water to a billion people living without. In 2010, we chose to give our international voice to Concern Worldwide and highlight the 72 million children that deserve the opportunity of an education.

I never planned to turn Twestival into a full-time role. It was just a crazy idea that I thought I could make happen. After the first one, I saw a desire for other cities to join the movement. Knowing I would not be able to recapture the exact energy and virality of early 2009, I continued to experiment with the Twestival model and connect with local causes. Many people thought it wouldn’t work, yet again and again international teams brought their enthusiasm to be a part of something bigger. This year we saw cities in Tunisia, Paraguay and Mongolia participate in Twestival for the very first time. 

It is with these achievements in mind that I feel it is now the right time to give Twestival an indefinite rest.

Twestival is a campaign that takes an enormous amount of time, organization and trust to execute. While it would not be possible without the thousands of volunteers who commit their time and talents; Twestival does not function without my leadership and creatively, I need to put my energy into fresh projects. I believe I have done almost all I can do with Twestival, continuing to honour its grassroots. I am incredibly proud to have worked with so many amazing volunteers, organizations and partners. It has offered me a unique insight into global fundraising and those special ingredients to bring an idea to scale. 

My personal decision does not completely close the door to a future Twestival. However, it will remain on hold until I am assured there is strong leadership and vision to move it forward. It has been important for me from the very beginning to protect the Twestival brand and while I welcome a viable opportunity to help it grow, this must be aligned to the core principals in order to work.  After much thought and deliberation, I am putting forward three potential options for Twestival and invite your input:

1.  Leverage Twestival during times of international crisis to unite cities in fundraising for tragedies similar to ones we’ve seen recently in Haiti, Pakistan, Japan. (Upside: global momentum of support, Downside: complexities of deciding which cause is urgent enough to support)

2.  Establish a board to oversee Twestival and invite proposals from causes around the world based on a pre-determined criteria. This group, with the input of international teams would select which project they wish to put their weight behind as a global campaign.  (Upside: continues the tradition of supporting causes that do not often get global attention, Downside: complexities with campaign management and heavy administration to decide the global cause)

3.  Stop Twestival indefinitely. 

Please vote in our poll here or leave a comment. 

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If you wish to keep updated on the future of Twestival, please enter your email on Twestival.com. 

I’d also love to keep you connected to the new initiatives I am developing. I think you’ll all want to be a part of it. Please follow @dot.

It is important to acknowledge that my decision to focus on new ventures is not the sole reason there are no current plans to launch a future Twestival. I would need another full blog to discuss the changes and challenges of running social media fundraising campaigns. To touch on a few things - there is a significant level of online charity fatigue, media attention is competitive and an infusion of great tools from companies like Meetup and Facebook have made coordinating global events using social media mainstream, thus redundant. 

Let me kick off with a couple questions that many people seem to be asking. If you have another question, please leave it  in the comments and I will do my best to answer. Thank you.

Can we use the Twestival brand to have an event on our own or in our region?

Unfortunately not. The unique thing about Twestival is that it is an international movement that happens on the same day. This is one thing that I will never change. While I wish I could to extend Twestival to those cities wanting to use it for their individual events, I simply cannot risk the brand, nor do I have the bandwidth or resources to coordinate all year round. I have trademarked Twestival so we can protect our efforts and remain a strong example for others. There is no reason you can’t continue to host events with your community, particularly for a cause - you will just need to give it a different name.

What should we do with our Facebook or Twitter pages associated with Twestival?

At the suggestion of volunteers on our call last weekend, I will be writing up some guidelines and posting it later this month. While I trust the judgement of Twestival teams, it is important we strike the right balance and ensure social media is not being used inappropriately. At the same time, I certainly don’t want to limit connections to the communities you have been building through Twestival. That is after all the heart of it.