Posted on May, 14 2015

WWF launches its first ever emoji-based fundraising campaign to help support the organisation’s work to protect precious species and their habitats.  The launch of the campaign will be run on Twitter from Endangered Species Day on Friday 15 May onwards.

The idea for the #EndangeredEmoji campaign was sparked by the discovery that 17 characters in the emoji alphabet represent endangered species.  WWF is seeking to translate the popularity of these characters into donations. Emoji have been used over 202 million times on Twitter since they were integrated into the platform in April 2014. The number is increasing daily.

#EndangeredEmoji will be run through the official @WWF Twitter account and at http://endangeredemoji.com.  Here’s how it works:

1. WWF will tweet an image showing all 17 Endangered Emoji. To take part in the campaign all twitter users need to do is retweet the image.
2. For every Endangered Emoji the user then tweets, WWF will add the local currency equivalent of €0.10 to a voluntary monthly donation.
3. At the end of each month, users will receive a summary of their Endangered Emoji use and can then choose how much to donate.

Adrian Cockle, Digital Innovation Manager at WWF International said: “When it comes to fundraising, giving people a simple way to donate is key. By using one of the world’s biggest social platforms to highlight endangered species, we’re hoping to raise vital funds for their conservation as well as raising awareness globally.” 

Spider Monkey	Amur Leopard
Giant Panda	Siamese crocodile
Asian Elephant	Bluefin tuna
Galapagos penquin	Blue whale
Antiguan Racer snake	Western gray whale
Bactrian camel	African wild dog
Tiger	Lemur leaf frog
Sumatran tiger	Maui's dolphin
Green turtle

The emoji alphabet, the standardised set of digital pictograph characters used in communication globally, contain the following characters which represent endangered species:
This campaign is launched a month after WWF Global Ambassador Andy Murray used emoji to celebrate his wedding to Kim Sears, receiving more than 14,000 retweets.

Influential digital supporters will help to publicize the campaign by retweeting the original image to their followers, including Xavier Di Petta, creator of @EarthPix and @HistoryInPics. He comments, “Emoji is the first global language and I love that people all over the world can get involved in protecting our planet and the animals we share it with.”

The campaign was developed with advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy London and technical partner Cohaesus.