If you grew up in the ’80s, you probably remember those unforgettable Sally Struthers commercials: “For just 70 cents a day, you can feed a starving child like Jamal…” They weren’t just background noise—they became cultural touchstones, even satirized in South Park’s “Starvin’ Marvin” episode in the 90s.
They also worked. The Christian Children’s Fund raised an estimated $80–100 million in the ’80s and early ’90s—nearly a quarter of a billion in today’s dollars. The secret wasn’t that they simply asked for money. It was how they told the story: focusing on one child, with a name and a face.
Researchers have been studying this for years. Deborah Small called it the identifiable victim effect: people are far more generous when they see and connect with one person, versus statistics about millions. Paul Slovic found the same pattern in a study later highlighted in How We Decide: people gave twice as much when they saw a photo of one child than when they were shown big, abstract numbers about hunger in Africa.
That’s the lesson: find your champion.
Here are two examples of how that still works today:
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Extra Life & Victoria Enmon – Extra Life, a 24-hour gaming marathon that raises money for Children’s Miracle Network hospitals, started in memory of Victoria Enmon, a young girl who lost her life to leukemia. Her story became the heart of a movement that has raised tens of millions for children’s hospitals.
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Mari Copeny, “Little Miss Flint” – Mari became the face of the Flint, MI water crisis after writing a letter to President Obama. Her advocacy helped secure $100 million in federal funding. That project was completed this summer, and Flint finally has clean water.
So when you’re building your next campaign, don’t just talk about “thousands in need.” Tell the story of one person. Share their name. Show their face. Let your audience connect with them.
That’s your fundraising superpower.