Charity Campaign Urges YouTube Viewers To “Give 0.7%”

How much of our personal income should we donate to charity? For Jack McPartland and Paul Calway, the answer is 0.7%; that small number defines a slick online campaign the two designers launched in partnership with Australian creative studio Future Büro and American creative director Amanda Clelland.

The message behind Give 0.7% is clear: If you donate a small portion of your salary to foreign aid (the 0.7% percent figure comes from the United Nations), you can make a “mind blowing” difference in the world. That assertion comes from Give 0.7%’s centerpiece: A ten-minute, five-second video outlining the campaign’s goals and encourage viewers to donate. That runtime is a specific one; 10:05 comes out to 0.7% of your day.

In case you the campaign’s use of YouTube doesn’t make it clear, Give 0.7% is aimed squarely at Millennials. The video ties together shots from films like Anchorman

, clips from viral hits like Katy Perry’s “Roar” video, snippets of hip-hop tracks like Jay-Z’s “99 Problems”, and other pop culture references meant to appeal to the Internet’s main demographic.

In the end, the video is a stream of targeted appeals, all of which are expertly woven together with flashy editing. This is, as Calway told Newsweek, is meant to energize and educate viewers who would otherwise have little awareness of international policy. “[Donating to foreign aid is] such a huge subject, and I think it’s quite scary for someone looking in from the outside who has got absolutely no idea what’s going on,” he said. “We’re trying to create an interest in people to give them the basics and hopefully then they’ll be engaged, go on further and find out more.”

More information on Give 0.7% can be found on the campaign’s equally-slick website.