A TikTok Watermelon Filter Raising Money for Gaza Highlights the Platform’s Potential for Fundraising Favorite 

Practitioner: 

Date: 

Nov 16 2023

Location: 

Online

A watermelon filter on TikTok is allowing users to raise funds to support civilians in Gaza, where more than 11,000 people have been killed since Israel began an offensive military attack on the Gaza Strip in October, after a Hamas attack killed 1,400 people in Israel and saw roughly 200 civilians taken hostage. Uploaded last week to the platform by Jourdan Johnson, a 27-year-old AR creator, the watermelon filter—a simple tracing game with the user dragging a watermelon across a squiggly line to collect seeds—generates money through TikTok’s Effect Creator program every time someone uses it. The funds go to Jordan, who plans to donate the total to charities bringing aid to people in Gaza.
The watermelon has been a symbol of Palestinian solidarity since the Six-Day War in 1967, when Israel banned public displays of the Palestinian flag in Gaza and the West Bank after seizing control of the areas. Palestinians began using the watermelon, which bears the colors of the Palestinian flag—red, black, white, and green—to get around the law.
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On TikTok, the watermelon emoji hashtag has over 1.2 billion views. So Johnson has decided to channel the popularity into fundraising. She tells TIME she wanted to “create a filter with the intent to donate from the start,” and find a new avenue to show support for the Palestinian people in addition to calling her local representatives and joining protests to demand a ceasefire in Gaza.

Since Johnson released the filter last week, it has been used in over 6.5 million videos and, as of publishing, accrued $14,000.

External sources: 

https://time.com/6335577/watermelon-filter-for-good-tiktok-gaza-aid/
Posted by ChrisC on Jan 29 2024

Staff rating: 

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Effectiveness

How does this project help?

Activates (people)Energizes and organizes people into action. Can include emotion work
Strengthens (community)Strengthens, builds and celebrates community through ritual and/or symbol.

Timeframe For change

This project seems to be part of a campaign with a clear short-term goal. Short-term goals tend to be things like: create or repeal a law; get a President impeached; make the city administration repair a sidewalk. A campaign with a short-term goal needs a clear theory of change, complete with targets that can be cajoled or pressured into effecting the goal.
People were encouraged to continue using the filter to reach the minimum requirement of 200,000 videos, after which, as stipulated by the TikTok Creators Fund, up to $14,000 can be earned. This money was then donated to causes providing relief in Gaza.

Notes

This project can be considered somewhat effective in providing a large sum of money to donate to related causes. However, it is difficult to measure how much of an impact the donations have actually made in terms of providing relief, especially considering the blockade by Israel limiting humanitarian aid into Gaza.