Sharing a “moment of silence” is an existing behavior used to honor victims of gun violence, as well as other tragedies. And with the five-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on the horizon, we knew people would be sharing plenty of “moments of silence” to honor the victims. So we created the Live Moment of Silence. It rethought the way a Facebook post can be used for a brand by tapping into the emerging behavior of “going live” on Facebook. And it turned the traditional moment of silence into a powerful tool to prevent gun violence using the Facebook Live “donate” button.

On December 14th, participants followed our lead and started their own livestreams on Facebook on their mobile devices, using the functionality of adding a “donate” button. This meant that after Sandy Hook Promise’s initial post, the “call to action” was coming from users, not us. And all those users’ friends who saw their post could easily click “donate” right in the post to contribute to Sandy Hook Promise. Once each individual livestream ended, it became a regular Facebook post, functioning as a donation unit.

The use of the “donate” button in the Facebook livestream established a new fundraising platform for brands. Celebrities joined and streamed their own Live Moment of Silence, as did classes and schools around the country. The Live Moments of Silence earned over 65 million impressions and helped surpass the fundraising goal of $1 million, all with a budget of $0.

We knew that our target—parents, teachers and students—were supportive of our cause, but the reality is that each of them are bombarded with so many requests from pro bono organizations via traditional Facebook posts that it’s hard to get their attention. So we knew we needed to take on a different approach. We knew they would pay attention when they got a notification on their mobile device that a friend was “live” on Facebook, so we asked people to live-stream their own “moment of silence” and use the Facebook functionality of embedding a “donate” button when they did so. This way, their friends would immediately be pulled into the experience. And from there, they could donate and/or create their own moment.

Sandy Hook Promise is an organization started by the parents of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. They believe gun violence is preventable when you know the signs of someone who may become a violent offender. They wanted to use the attention surrounding their five-year anniversary to raise money to fund their gun violence prevention programs. But normal Facebook posts were proving to be an ineffective tool.