Activating a Generation: From Live Aid to the Ice Bucket Challenge

Thirty years after “Live Aid” changed the face of charity fundraising, clicktivism has taken center stage. If you share, re-tweet and like, are you making the world a better place?

In the summer of 1985, Bob Geldof staged a dual-venue rock concert called “Live Aid” that changed the face of charity fundraising. A glittering lineup of rock stars and celebrities raised millions to feed starving children in Ethiopia, and established a model that would eventually aid victims of everything from hurricanes to Third World debt. But thirty years later, the Ice Bucket Challenge has scrambled fundraising paradigms, and raised a pressing question: how to turn social media into meaningful philanthropy?

  • Producer: Jonathan Gruber
  • Sr. Producer: Bonnie Bertram
  • Editor: Anne Checler
  • Editor: Karen J. Brenner