Another month, another new viral fundraising trend, this time in the form of #wakeupcall, where A-list celebs tweet pictures of themselves just after waking up, in aid of UNICEF's work in Syria. As tends to be the case, it's sparked a debate on the role of celebrities in bringing these causes to the public, with commentators suggesting that they might be getting involved for the wrong reasons.
The charge is that these public figures are getting involved for the retweets and press coverage, rather than in a bid to increase donations. I don't buy this argument - it is (would you believe?) absolutely possible to care about kids in Syria and be a famous person. If there is a criticism of #wakeupcall - which is certainly a nice, creative idea - it's that it doesn't seem to have inspired much action from 'ordinary' people.
That's what sets other viral fundraisers like the Ice Bucket Challenge and #nomakeup selfie apart. It's not the A-list names putting their face to it, but the fact that they're driven, at first at least, by regular people simply trying to raise cash for a cause they care about. At its very best, that's what the web has done: given an unprecedented platform to people to make their voices heard.
If there are two websites in the UK that show how the internet can give people a powerful voice, it's Mumsnet and my organisation, Change.org. Whether it's skewering top politicians or turning over archaic sexism by getting mums' names on marriage certificates, the web has unleashed a tidal wave of unpredictable, disruptive, people-powered stories and campaigns. They're not driven by a pre-defined organisational agenda, but by the turbocharged sharing power of social media.
David versus Goliath stories of human justice and fairness are at the heart of what has made Change.org successful. Stories of one person standing up to authority and fighting for fairness have taken on a viral quality of their own – they're the reason why more than 800 people have won campaigns powered by Change.org in the UK. Celebrities back them all the time, but aren't the central point of the story - they're just handy for when campaigns explode into the public consciousness.
Fahma Mohamed is a brilliant example of this. When the seventeen-year-old Bristol schoolgirl started a petition calling on former Education Secretary Michael Gove to write to every headteacher in the UK asking them to do more in schools on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), more than 234,000 people signed it. She and a group of friends from school and their teacher marched into the Department for Education, sat down in front of Michael Gove and made their case. They were invited there because almost a quarter of a million people had taken the time to read Fahma's story and sign her petition. They used that mandate to call for change and won – it's an age-old story of political engagement that the internet has super-charged. Now, at the click of a button, we can bring together people and causes in a way that wasn't possible even ten years ago.
Will people ever get bored of petitions and social media fundraisers? Have sites like Change.org become too saturated? I don't think so, because the important thing to remember is that Twitter, Facebook and Change.org are vehicles. They're platforms for ideas of ordinary people, who are infinitely interesting.
In the end – celebrity cynicism aside – the only thing that matters is what works. Online petitions come in for a fair bit of criticism, but the charge of ‘keyboard warrior’ doesn't stick when we consider the incredible difference that our platform's six million UK users have made. Similarly, Ice Bucket Challenge, #nomakeup selfie and a host of others help fill the coffers of charities at a time when raising money is tough. Online campaigns have accelerated the potential for ordinary people to do extraordinary things - and we should embrace them.