Why Isn’t Steve Kardynal’s ‘Raining For Charity’ Raising More Money?

Since its release on April 20th, Steve Kardynal‘s ‘Raining Food‘ video has become a viral hit. The video, in which Kardynal stands still as various food items rain down on his head, has scored more than 1.7 million views and has been featured in Time, ABC News, Adweek, and several other news outlets.

Despite its popularity, the video is struggling to accomplish its primary charitable goal. Kardynal, best known for his Chatroulette lip sync videos, created ‘Raining Food’ as a way to raise money for Action Against Hunger, a charity hoping to end hunger worldwide. He set up a donation page alongside Alex Negrete (who made a ‘Raining Food’ video of his own) and linked to it in the description of his now-viral video. Even so, the page has received just ten donations totaling $472–well short of Kardynal and Negrete’s $8,000 goal.

Kardynal’s fundraising struggles are surprising when contrasted to the charity drive success of his fellow YouTubers. PewDiePie’s Indiegogo campaign for Save The Children has raised $282,000 and counting, while the Vlogbrothers’ annual Project 4 Awesome raised a whopping $869,171 in its latest rendition.

The difference, of course, is that both of those campaigns have offered perks to donors, while Kardynal’s has not. That said, a new video from Kardynal’s infrequently-updated channel is a reward in its own right, and even without any perks, shouldn’t 1.7 million views and major media coverage translate to more than just ten donations?

$472 for charity is obviously better than $0 for charity, but if you’d like to increase that total, you can donate to Kardynal and Negrete’s campaign right here.