When First Place Should Lose
Posted by Kristján
 Steve Randa Shave to Save |
 Jason Gramke Shave to Save |
 Jason Fortune Shave to Save |
 Andy McGinnis Shave to Save |
A week ago, these four causes were created with an interesting idea. Each of these people put themselves in the running to have their head shaved bald in support of the American Cancer Society’s Shave to Save program. The two of them who get the most votes will be put under the razor, and the fun part is how you cast a vote: with a dollar. Each dollar donated to your cause gets you closer to a smooth, shiny, hopefully-not-sunburnt scalp.
This creates a dynamic that you don’t see in typical fundraising runs. Rather than getting your friends to support you while you walk/ jump rope/ juggle, you’re rallying your other friends to help you stick it to the ones involved in the competition. You activate four networks of people (though in this case there’s likely a lot of overlap) who can now feed off of each other in two ways:
- A Bidding War – If I convince my group of friends that it would be the most amusing to see Steve without hair, we’re all now interested in keeping his votes highest. And what does that mean? More donations to Steve’s cause. As other groups decide on other targets, we get into a classic bidding war, a concept that we otherwise haven’t seen yet in our application.
- Anyone but Me! – If I’m picked as a target, on the assumption that I’d actually prefer to keep my hair, I need to keep myself out of first (and in this case also second) place. So as more and more donations come my way, I have to take it out on whoever’s closest behind me with donations of my own. When everyone follows this strategy, you get another positive feedback loop, and the karma katamari keeps on rolling.
As of today, these causes have raised over $400 from just a few donors in only a week. Not bad at all, and if we were to work these ideas properly into the application somewhere, I have no doubt that we could get a solid donation machine running. And you know what I love most? We can employ game dynamics like this without concern for how people might try and play the system. So you used six different credit cards, created fake profiles and bribed people with pizza. What do I care? You just made the world a better place.
So kudos to Steve, Jason, and Andy for their clever strategy and support of the ACS. Thank you for making us a part of it and showing everyone else how Causes can make a difference, even among a small group of friends.
P.S. I hope you post pictures of your shaving party