ARMY MatchAMillion Campaign

Event
Event:	#MatchAMillion
Participants:	One In An ARMY
Date(s):	June 3, 2020
Type:	Twitter Donation Campaign
Fandom:	ARMY (BTS)
URL:	Tweet link
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The #MatchAMillion campaign was organized by ARMY fanbase One In An ARMY after the news that BTS and their company Big Hit Entertainment donated $1 million to Black Lives Matter broke.

Their donation was made a week before they tweeted out this tweet expressing their support for the movement:

우리는 인종차별에 반대합니다.

우리는 폭력에 반대합니다. 나, 당신, 우리 모두는 존중받을 권리가 있습니다. 함께 하겠습니다.

We stand against racial discrimination. We condemn violence. You, I and we all have the right to be respected. We will stand together.

Hashtag: BlackLivesMatter

After the news broke on June 6, 2020, ARMY trended #MatchAMillion to encourage each other to match BTS' donation. In the first twenty-four hours, over $800,000 was raised. The million dollar donation was matched after the twenty-four hour mark on June 7.

On the One in an ARMY website, an ActBlue card was used to track donations and allowed donors split their money between 16 groups including the Black Lives Matter Global Network, National Bail Out, NAACP and the Marshall Project. As of February 2021, the card is still on the website and actively taking donations. Currently, over $1,350,000 has been raised with over 40,000 donors.

Excerpts from Press Release

On June 7, 2020, One in an ARMY posted an official press release explaining the campaign and ARMY's involvement. It clarified the fandom's intentions to the press and information about the campaign.

Fan Reactions

We as a fandom have successfully #MatchAMillion from BTS reported donation towards #BlackLivesMatter over the last 24 hours! We hope it can be great use toward a better future and more equal rights for black people. #ENDViolence Thank you @OneInAnARMY for the initiatives

So proud of this fandom and our campaigning and networking skills. $1 million in less than a day.

DAMN.

Thanks so much to everyone who donated and continues to donate to these worthy causes! #BlackLivesMatter

Celebrity Reactions

I've never listened to one single #BTS song in my life, but I just heard that they donated one million dollars to #BlackLivesMatter That is Kool. #BTS @BTS_twt fans are using the hashtag #MatchAMillion to organize and match the $1 million donation

--Paul D. Miller

HOLY SHIT! Congrats BTS ARMY for raising over a MILLION DOLLARS for #BlackLivesMatter in less than 24hrs with #MatchAMillion. I’m so proud of y’all wow.

--Elijah Daniel

So @BTS_twt fans are using the hashtag #MatchAMillion to organize and match the $1 million donation the group made to Black Lives Matter. This is the type of fandom I respect. #BTS #BlackLivesMatter

--Frederick Joseph

Press Reactions

BTS‘ colossal fanbase, the ARMY, have pulled off a huge feat today (June 8), matching the K-pop superstars’ $1million donation to the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

The #MatchAMillion initiative was coined by Twitter user @Monosplaylist, and was further organised and co-ordinated by volunteer fan collective, One In An Army.

The organisers gave fans several charities and funds to donate to, including the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, The National Bailout Collective, Black Aids Institute and Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project to name a few.

In just 24 hours, One In An Army claim that they hit $1million from over 34,000 donators. That number is still rising, with $1.05million raised at the time of writing (from over 36,000 donors).

“We added a goal tracker to our donation page and our website purely to keep ARMY updated on the total amount raised. We’ve run big projects before, but the amount of support for this project is overwhelming,” a spokesperson for One In An Army said in a press statement.

“We truly didn’t know whether the goal would be reached. We’re so proud that ARMY have once again channeled their power for good and are making a real impact in the fight against anti-black racism.”

While the campaign was started in response to the death of George Floyd last month, One In An Army have made the campaign permanent.

“Black Lives Matter isn’t something that has a time limit. It’s a belief everyone needs to carry in their everyday lives.”

“We stand in solidarity with black ARMY,” the statement continued.

“They’re an important part of our family. And we stand with black people everywhere. Your voices deserve to be heard.”

--Jackson Langford from NME

The protests against police brutality and systemic racism have seen several American and international celebrities donate to U.S. nonprofits and organizations dedicated to racial justice. On June 5, racial justice organization Black Lives Matter confirmed it had received a $1 million donation from South Korean pop group BTS and its record label, Big Hit Entertainment.

Shortly after the news became public, BTS fans organized an online campaign to match the donation under the hashtag #MatchAMillion and reached their goal in just 25 hours.

K-pop fans are known for their prolific social media activity and have used their influence to support social justice issues. On Instagram and Twitter, they have taken over white supremacist hashtags with fancams – short videos of their favourite pop idols performing. When the Dallas Police Department asked the public to submit videos of “illegal activity” during protests to its iWatch Dallas app, fans encouraged each other to submit fancams instead, and the app went temporarily offline. More recently, fans were credited alongside TikTok-using teenagers for registering en masse for tickets for President Trump’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but not attending.

These fanbases are sometimes generalized as young and obsessive individuals who occasionally take collective action. But they have a history of raising money for charity and breaking social media records, and BTS fans in particular are enabled by the semi-structured organization of the fanbase and the diversity within their ranks.

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At the same time the #MatchAMillion campaign was trending, some Black BTS fans were using the international spotlight to talk about their experiences with racism in the fanbase.

This isn’t the first time they have brought up these issues. In 2018, several Twitter hashtags highlighting their experiences and stories went viral such as #BlackARMYBeauty, #BlackARMYsequality and #BlackoutBTS, which continues to recur. In the past, U.S. media coverage has painted K-pop fanbases as a monolith of socially-progressive activism.

“The positioning of the fandom as inherently or automatically progressive lets people who are racist slide under and ignores the fact that it’s a fandom, which is made up of people – who are problematic, because they’re people,” said fan and media critic Zina H., who writes under the name Stitch.

Some Black ARMYs say BTS has a responsibility to continue publicly supporting the racial justice protests that affect them. And BTS has also publicly acknowledged their music is based on hip-hop and R&B – genres that were created and popularized by Black American artists.

“It was important for them to take a stand against racism to show not only are they influenced by the music to make their own music, but also to show that they stand with them in terms of the struggles they face,” said @naija0329, who helped coin the #MatchAMillion hashtag.

But some fans are also concerned the wider fanbase’s attention to these racial issues may be fleeting.

“When people care – like seriously care – they’re going to put action behind that and not just words. And to actually see action behind it? That made me wake up and have hope,” said Nico Edward, who runs a BTS reaction video YouTube channel. “People lash out and do the hashtags and stuff and that’s fine to raise awareness, but it usually, historically, dies out and people’s attention moves to other things. But we’re still dealing with this every single day.”

--Aditi Bhandari from Reuters Graphics

Never underestimate the stans.

In about a day, fans of the South Korean music group BTS, known as Army, have matched the group’s donation of $1 million to various charities supporting racial justice.

On Saturday night, BTS revealed their donation to Variety, which appears to be one of the largest celebrity checks written thus far to the U.S. Black Lives Matter movement. On Sunday night, Army (which stylizes its name in all caps) followed up by pitching in more than $1 million. At the time of this article’s publication, the total reads $1.2 million—and it’s still rising.

Using hashtags #MatchAMillion and #MatchTheMillion, the fan-led fundraiser was spontaneously organized through social media after Army learned of BTS’s donation, with no direction from the music group itself. One in an Army, a charity program within the community with a history of running fundraising campaigns, served as central command.

“We’ve run big projects before, but the amount of support for this project is overwhelming,” a program spokesperson stated in a press release. “We’re so proud that Army have once again channeled their power for good and are making a real impact in the fight against anti-black racism.”

Their success may come as a surprise to some, but to those familiar with BTS’s fan organizations, it’s anything but—the groups were able to move quickly because the structures and practices for this scale of collective action have long been in place. Army has been known to rally to trend hashtags to promote new work from the group and stream music videos in concentrated sessions to rack up views. A foundation of dedicated Twitter accounts announce hashtags, monitor and report statistics, and disseminate information.

A 24-hour deadline carries unusual distinction among BTS fans as a benchmark for achievement. It has proved effective: The group’s hit single “Boy With Luv” holds the world record for the most viewed YouTube video in 24 hours, the fandom holds the record for the most tweets under a single hashtag in 24 hours, and the group itself holds the record for most No. 1 chart spots held by a Korean album in 24 hours.

So the BTS fandom is used to mobilizing with hairpin agility. Consider the following example from last night: Less than an hour away from reaching $1 million, fans were discussing the hashtag they should use to celebrate their success. At first, they circulated #ArmyMatchedAMillion. But then a few fans suggested #2MforBLM “to make it not about us and show priority for the cause,” as one wrote. Within minutes (and thanks to myriad retweets) most of the community knew of the change of plans—and minutes later, when the $1 million goal was hit, #2MforBLM began trending worldwide.

A charitable ethos has been in place, too. A week before BTS’s donation was revealed, One in an Army had set up a channel for fans to split donations between organizations for racial justice—the group’s donation only galvanized its use. Over the past few years, fans have donated toward causes around the world, addressing such problems as environmental degradation, homelessness, and pediatric cancer; they have also adopted a zoo of animals such as whales, koalas, and Hoseok the deer, a creature in Germany christened after group member J-Hope.

The #MatchAMillion campaign now has a permanent page on One in an Army’s website. “Black Lives Matter isn’t something that has a time limit,” said the One in an Army spokesperson. A powerful grass-roots organization doesn’t, either.

--Karen Yuan from Fortune

Academic Papers

On January 11, 2021, a paper titled "Armed in ARMY: A Case Study of How BTS Fans Successfully Collaborated to#MatchAMillion for Black Lives Matter" was published. It was a collaborative paper worked on by So Yeon Park (@syj_park), Jin Ha Lee (@ElegantLogic), Blair Kaneshiro (@BlairKaneshiro), and Nicole Santero (@ReasearchBTS). The research paper surveyed ARMYs to better understand factors of fandoms' collaborative success for arguably unrelated social goals.