Contrary to popular belief, Canada is one of the least philanthropic countries in the world. Our blatant apathy makes it difficult for organizations like War Child to attract new members. We needed to start a discourse about Canada’s role in helping child soldiers. Also, we needed a group of key activists to help War Child generate urgent support in a short period of time.

The idea at the core of our PR campaign was: "We’re supporting the problem if we are doing nothing to stop it".We launched a large teaser campaign on YouTube that showed what people were doing to support the use of child soldiers. In order to draw attention to the campaign, we sent a fake knife donation mailer to selected media and bloggers. They were asked to donate a used knife to a child soldier in need. When they opened the box, they learned the true campaign message and were pushed to www.helpchildsoldiers.com.The results were outstanding: 123,364 total views and 1,667 comments. Since the launch, War Child has seen over 12,000 new memberships, an 80% increase in new volunteers and in turn, a 50% increase in donations.

We launched a larger teaser campaign that showed what people were doing to support the use of child soldiers. In order to draw attention to the campaign, we sent a fake knife donation mailer to selected media and bloggers. They were asked to donate a used knife to a child soldier in need. When they opened the box, they learned the true campaign message and were pushed to www.helpchildsoldiers.com.

Bloggers posted about the knife donation box, which instigated a viral effect on the overall campaign. In total, there were 17,689 referrals to www.helpchildsoldiers.com from blogs and websites. The campaign’s YouTube video had 123,364 total views and 1,667 comments. Since the launch, War Child has seen over 700 new memberships, an 80% increase in new volunteers and in turn, a 50% increase in donations.