1. What does One In An ARMY do?

One In An ARMY is a global fundraising team made up of BTS fans around the world. Our research team searches for reputable non-profits that provide tangible services. Each month, we partner with a different non-profit to help ARMY make micro-donations in the name of BTS ARMY. One In An ARMY are not in anyway endorsed by BTS or BigHit Entertainment. We make no profit of any kind and are not involved in handling money during any of our campaigns. Please read our About page for our full disclaimer.

4. Cool! I want to donate. Do I send my money to you?

Nope! Due to the nature of this project, One In An ARMY has collectively decided to stay hands-off when it comes to donations. Each month will be different, but depending on the non-profit you'll be giving it directly to the organization.

5. I can't donate directly to the charity because I don't have enough to meet the minimum donation/have a credit card/the non-profit doesn't accept PayPal. Can't I just send it to you instead?

Unfortunately no. One In An ARMY does not accept e-transfers, PayPal payments, cheques, or money of any kind. Any monetary donations sent to our email will be refunded. There are still a couple of ways you can donate: 1) You can round up a group of friends and pool your funds together to meet the minimum donation amount. Please only do this with individuals you trust as One In An ARMY has no way of verifying our donation totals and will not answer questions like "did X submit our $10 donation" due to privacy concerns. 2) If there is a trusted regional fanbase in your area/country, you can message them and ask if they'll pool doations for your area. The fanbase will also be required to fill out our Google form to help us track the donation. Again, please only do this with fanbases you trust. We recommend that you ask the fanbase for a screenshot of the thank you email once the donation is made. If you choose to donate through either method, please understand the risks involved before transfering your money online or in person. If you have any doubts about the individual/fanbase, please hold onto your money and donate in a different month where you are able to send your money directly to the non-profit. We recognize that ARMY might have trouble donating to our campaigns which is why we keep a list of non-monetary side projects going on our Bonus Missions page. You can also check out our Current Campaign page for the current bonus mission or participate in our monthly #AnpanARMY Day.

6. Is there anything special I should write when making my donation?

Yes! Depending on the non-profit, we may request that you fill in your given/first name as "BTS" and your family/last name as "ARMY". Other times, the non-profit might have a section on their donation page where you can make your donation "in honour of _____". If you're donating with PayPal,you might be asked to write "BTS ARMY" in the notes field of your donation. Please check our current campaign page to see if this is applicable. If you plan on making a large donation, we recommend you check with the non-profit and see if they issue tax receipts for your country.

8. Why do I have to submit a screenshot of my donation on the Google form?

Although this step of the campaign is optional, we highly recommend you submit a screenshot of your donation. Due to donor privacy policies, the non-profits we work with are sometimes unable to provide us with donor summaries - and since you're donating directly to the non-profit or to a fanbase, we have no idea how much money ARMY has raised. This form is only to help us keep track of how much ARMY has donated and helps us provide estimated totals of our campaigns. Filling out the form is voluntary, but without it, we won't be able to show how much good we've done at the conclusion of a campaign. Please strikeout any personal details on your screenshot but make sure the donation amount is visible! The data collected on this form will not be shared publicly and is only collected so we can gauge a rough estimate of total contributions.

12. How can I do more for One In An ARMY beyond donating?

You can join us in our Discord group chat! The participation group chat is where we do a lot of planning for future campaigns, solicit feedback, and recruit translators and promo team members. Send us an email or a DM if you'd like to join. You can also check out our Current Campaign page to see what the monthly bonus mission is, or check out our Bonus Missions page where you can learn about non-monetary side projects like #AnpanARMY Day and our Freerice challenge.

14. Can I suggest a non-profit for future campaigns?

Absolutely! Please send us a DM or send us an email to oneinanarmy@gmail.com. Please understand that One In An ARMY makes every effort to support as many organizations as possible, but it won't be possible to work with every suggested non-profit. Please refer to #20 to see our criteria for working with an organization. We sometimes have to makd statements about problematic organizations we are frequently asked to work with like 4Ocean and WWF. Please refer to our Bonus Missions page and look under "Info Threads and Statements" before submitting your suggestion.

3. How do I know my money is going to a good cause?

One In An ARMY makes every effort to research and connect with reputable organizations that provide tangible services (please refer to #20 to see our full criteria for working with an organization). Due to donor privacy policies, the non-profits we work with are sometimes unable to provide us with donor summaries - and since you're donating directly to the non-profit, we rely on submissions to our Google form. At the end of every campaign, One In An ARMY will provide a summary of what ARMY was able to donate. When possible, we also request that a donation certificate be sent to Big Hit Entertainment as BTS is the inspiration behind this entire project.

2. How many ARMY are involved in organizing One In An ARMY?

We currently operate with a core team of 20 ARMYs ranging in age from teens to 40s from 10 different countries. We also have around 25 ARMY who volunteer as translators and offer suggestions in our Discord chat - shoot us a DM or email if you'd like to join!

13. Shouldn't we be donating to the Love Myself campaign?

Absolutely! One In An ARMY works with a different non-profit every month. Our June 2018 campaign was dedicated to Love Myself and #ENDviolence. You can read the full report for June 2018 in our archive.

9. Can I make my donation using any type currency?

It depends on the organization. If the non-profit accepts Visa/MasterCard, you should be able to donate regardless of country. Most non-profits will accept donations from around the world, but they may only be equipped to handle donations in the currency where their organization is registered (e.g. American non-profits in USD, South Korean non-profits in KRW). Because we are committed to making this project as inclusive as possible by only asking ARMY to give micro donations, it's unlikely that the minimum donation will ever be too much to handle regardless of currency. However, if you are concerned about the minimum amount, please use a currency converter and check how much will be coming off your card/out of your bank account before donating.

7. Do I have to fill out the Google form?

As you're donating your money directly to the non-profit it's not mandatory to fill out our Google form, but it's extremely helpful! Since your money goes directly to the non-profit, the Google form is the only way we can track ARMY donations. Sometimes non-profits are able to set up ARMY donation pages; other times, we request that you write "BTS ARMY" as your name or in the PayPal notes. In their eargerness to help, sometimes ARMY (and members of our own team) forget to include BTS ARMY in their donation information...which is a problem as the non-profit has no idea to count your donation towards out total. By filling out the Google form, we're able to send the non-profit a list of donations they can cross-check with their own information and give us an accurate total number. It also lets both OIAA and the non-profit do a tally of how many ARMY per country donated and helps us write our monthly reports. We promise the information you submit on the form will never be published or made public

16. Can you share my gofundme/kickstarter/individual campaign?

Potentially. If your fundraising page is linked directly to the non-profit and no money is handled by a third party in the transaction, our research team will run through our regular screening questions and we’ll poll the rest of the team for a decision.

If the fundraiser is linked to a personal or business bank account, the answer is unfortunately no. We take our responsibility seriously and would never want to endorse ARMY donating to a cause we can’t verify as legitimate.

Additionally, we don't share fundraisers that benefit a single individual of any kind, regardless of platform.

Please keep in mind that we only share ARMY led projects that are fundraising in the name of BTS and/or ARMY. The only exception to this rule is 1) if it's a fundraiser in conjunction with someone BTS collaborated (e.g. Halsey) with or a TV show host where BTS was a guest (e.g. Jimmy Fallon and James Corden) or 2) if it's a fundraiser in conjunction with one of our crisis threads.

19. Why are you running birthday campaigns?

Since BTS have stopped receiving gifts for their birthdays, and prefer that we donate to charity in their stead, these campaigns will be our gifts from ARMY to each member. In 2018/2019, as voted by ARMY, each campaign will ran for the duration of one month and was accompanied by a non-monetary Bonus Mission – just like a regular campaign. We took ARMY suggestions into consideration and picked organizations that we believed each member would relate to and appreciate. The thought process behind why each non-profit was chosen was be posted on the current campaign page and also featured in our campaign summary. At the end of each campaign, we requested a certificate of acknowledgment to be sent to BTS as a whole ( as voted by ARMY), with a special dedication to the member in honor of his birthday. The 2018/2019 schedule for the birthday campaigns was:

• August - Jeon Jungkook "Jungkook"
• September - Kim Namjoon "RM"
• October - Park Jimin "Jimin"
• December - Kim Seokjin "Jin"
• January - Kim Taehyung "V"
• February - Jung Hoseok "J-Hope"
• March - Min Yoongi "Suga"

18. [Insert crisis here] is happening in [insert country here]! Can One In An ARMY run a campaign to help?

The short version: unfortunately, no. But we might be able to pull something together for our Crisis Carrd Directory (see #21).

The long version: it takes around 1-2 months of work behind the scenes to establish a campaign. First, we run a poll (or look at the results of a previous poll) to determine what kind of non-profit we want to work with in a particular month (e.g. physical needs, human rights, environment, etc). Next, we select non-profits that fit the theme from our masterlist (comprised of ARMY suggestions and non-profits curated by our team). Research team investigates the shortlist of candidates, brings them forward at the meeting, and the entire team votes on for our favourite. Once a winner is selected, the outreach team makes initial contact and starts talking about One In An ARMY's needs (can they accept micro-donations? What payment types do they allow? Can they track donations and provide us with a total? Can they provide tangible results so we see exactly where our donations go?) with the non-profit. Sometimes we have to do this for 2-3 non-profits for a single campaign if a non-profit takes too long to get back to us or can't meet our needs (see question 20 for more details on our criteria).

Once the non-profit is on board, our design team gets to work on creating posters and promo videos. Communications team starts drafting the new masterthread and prepping DMs to send to fanbases to help spread the new campaign. All written material is then sent to our volunteer discord where the translators work their magic. The translated material is then given back to design and communication team so they can add it to posters and threads. Research team continues to hammer out the nitty gritty details and make test donations to ensure everything is running smoothly. Web team builds a new campaign page and Google form, and starts uploading poster and video content to the website. Everyone pitches in during meetings and brainstorming sessions to plan extra features like games, stories, and bonuses.

All of this goes on behind the scenes while the current campaign is still running. More often than not, we're running a campaign and planning two future campaigns at the same time. As One In An ARMY is comprised entirely of volunteers, it would be almost impossible for us to set up a campaign to address a crisis situation. Additionally, it's important to us to provide ARMY with factual information and make sure ARMY's donations are being sent to a non-profit that will use them on the ground and provide actual support to the crisis situation. It is almost impossible to get that kind of information from a crisis organization, as the money usually goes into a central pot and is distributed as needed.

Additionally, we try not to rely to much on just linking ARMY to gofundmes for crisis situations. As mentioned above, we make an effort to direct ARMY towards causes that can make an immediate difference in people's lives. While gofundmes are sometimes the fastest avenue to donate funds, they aren't always the best option. An example of this is the Humboldt Broncos bus crash in Saskatchewan, Canada. The crash happened in April 2018 and killed 16 (young) hockey players, their coaches, and their bus driver, and left some of the survivors with life-altering injuries. A gofundme was set up immediately and raised 15M dollars. It then took 7 months to figure out how and who to distribute the funds to, and forced the grieving families and survivors to go through additional trauma. So while gofundmes will provide a difference eventually, donating directly to crisis orgs that are already on the ground (like orgs providing trauma services) are more effective, though potentially harder to evaluate.

However, if ARMY feels passionately about donating during a crisis situation, go for it! When asked about specific situations, we try to put together a thread of non-profits ARMY can donate to as suggested by the media, but we highly encourage ARMY to do a little research on their own and make sure they feel comfortable donating to the non-profit.

Crisis situations we have touched on in past can be found on our Bonus Missions page. An explanation of our new system for aiding with crisis can be found in #21.

17. Can you share my petition?

Currently, petitions are not something we promote on this account. We work with projects that produce guaranteed results to make sure our followers are truly helping when we ask them to support. Petitions are hard for us to validate, especially since they aren't our area of "expertise" and we don’t have enough hours in the day to fact check everything we’re asked to retweet. While we don’t share petitions publically, we always bring them to the rest of our team on Discord and give individual team members the opportunity to support them on their personal accounts.

15. I got a DM from [insert account here] saying they work with you asking me to send them money. Should I do it?

No! As ARMY grows in size, there will be an increase in scammers trying to take advantage of ARMYs kind hearts. In October 2018, we dealt with our first imposter account pretending to be us so they could solicit money from ARMY. The only accounts One In An ARMY manages are listed in the footer of our website, as is our email address. As stated multiple times on our website and on Twitter, One In An ARMY does not accept monetary donations of any kind and will never ask you to send money directly to us.

10. Can you run multiple campaigns at the same time for people who can’t donate because the non-profit doesn’t accept PayPal/bank transfers/wire transfers?

While we completely sympathize with ARMY who are locked out of donating due to donation limits, it isn’t possible for us to run multiple campaigns at the same time. Here’s a brief breakdown of how we plan a campaign:

It takes around 1-2 months of work behind the scenes to fully develop a campaign. First, we run a poll (or look at the results of a previous poll) to determine what kind of non-profit we want to work with in a particular month (e.g. physical needs, human rights, environment, etc). Next, we select non-profits that fit the theme from our masterlist (comprised of ARMY suggestions and non-profits curated by our team). Research team investigates the shortlist of candidates, brings them forward at the meeting, and the entire team votes on for our favourite. Even more research needs to be done for the birthday campaigns as we need to find non-profits that fit the personalities and interests of the members. Once a winner is selected, the outreach team makes initial contact and starts talking about One In An ARMY's needs (can they accept micro-donations? What payment types do they allow? Can they track donations and provide us with a total? Can they provide tangible results so we see exactly where our donations go?) with the non-profit. Sometimes we have to do this for 2-3 non-profits for a single campaign if a non-profit takes too long to get back to us or can't meet our needs (see question 20 for more details on our criteria).

Once the non-profit is on board, our design team gets to work on creating posters and promo videos. Communications team starts drafting the new masterthread and prepping DMs to send to fanbases to help spread the new campaign. All written material is then sent to our volunteer discord where the translators work their magic. The translated material is then given back to design and communication team so they can add it to posters and threads. Research team continues to hammer out the nitty gritty details and make test donations to ensure everything is running smoothly. Web team builds a new campaign page and Google form, and starts uploading poster and video content to the website. Everyone pitches in during meetings and brainstorming sessions to plan extra features like games, stories, and bonuses (which is why our meetings sometimes last for 6 hours!).

All of this goes on behind the scenes while the current campaign is still running. More often than not, we're running a campaign and planning two future campaigns at the same time. As One In An ARMY is comprised entirely of volunteers, it would be almost impossible for us to run multiple campaigns at the same time. We understand it feels frustrating when you have to sit out one or more campaigns, but we try to run bonus missions alongside the current campaign so everyone can get involved even if they can’t donate. We also maintain an ongoing list of side projects on our website. If you’re absolutely set on donating money but can’t donate to the non-profit we’re working with in the current month, we encourage you to find a similar non-profit in your own community/country and share the project you’ve picked on #AnpanARMY Day.

11. Why do you focus so much on [insert topic here]? I think we should focus more on [insert topic here].

Back in May 2017 we ran a poll asking what types of causes ARMY were interested in. The poll received 2,822 votes – impressive, given that One In An ARMY only reached 5,000 followers two days before we ran the poll! We want ARMY to have as much say as possible into shaping our campaigns while recognizing that it takes around 1-2 months of work in advance to fully develop a campaign (please see the question/answer regarding running multiple campaigns at the same time for a better understanding of our timeline).

Using the poll as our guide, One In An ARMY has made an effort to rotate through causes to ensure we aren’t focusing on the same causes back to back. So far, our campaign tallies are:

Human needs – 5

Human rights – 6

Health – 2

Nature – 1

These line up roughly with the priority ARMY gave to the causes on our poll. We made things a little more difficult for ourselves by asking ARMY if they wanted us to run birthday campaigns for each of the members (see the results from that poll here) as it’s important to us to partner with non-profits which match the members’ personalities and interests while maintaining our commitment to working with non-profits that provide tangible services to those it promises to serve. This meant that some months we had to run campaigns that focused on similar causes back to back; the July and August campaigns are an example where we had to run two human needs campaigns sequentially (we were already locked into working with Thirst Relief when we ran the birthday poll and our team voted unanimously to do something involving children from Jungkook’s August campaign). Once we finished with the 2018/2019 birthday season in March 2019, One In An ARMY continued to prioritize rotating through different causes equally. The 2019/2020 birthday season will be organized a little differently as we are polling ARMY directly for suggestions and their preference of the top suggestions for each member's birthday. This means we may stray a little from our 2017 poll preferences, but it's our hope that this method will make ARMY feel like they have more input into the birthday campaigns. As was the case in 2018/2019, One In An ARMY will use the non-birthday months (ie November 2019, and April-July 2020 to work with causes we didn't touch on with the birthday campaigns.

If you’d like to send us a suggestion for a non-profit to work with, feel free to email us at oneinanarmy@gmail.com or send us a message through DMs or Curious Cat on Twitter. Additionally, you can always check out our Bonus Missions page and see if there’s a side project you’re interested in taking on. And if you still can’t find anything that sparks your passion, we encourage you to make a donation to a non-profit you’re interested in and share it with us on #AnpanARMY day. Even if it’s not in support of one of our campaigns, One In An ARMY loves seeing ARMYs give to causes they’re passionate about!

20. What are your criteria for working with an organization?

Our research team is constantly on the lookout for organizations that might fit our criteria. All organizations that look like they might work and all organizations that are suggested to us by ARMY are added to our masterlist. Once there, our research team can evaluate them more thoroughly and bring them forward to our meetings where all team members visit the organization's website and discuss as a group. We first went to ARMY to find out what kinds of causes they wanted us to tackle, and in what order of importance. We try to rotate through causes as based on this poll so we don’t do two of the same cause back to back. Given that we only run one campaign a month and 7/12 months of the year are occupied by birthday campaigns (as voted by ARMY), it sometimes takes a while to get to a specific cause. When we identify the cause we are going to work with, we start finding organizations under that umbrella. Then we begin taking them through our checklist. Tangible Services: First and foremost, the organization must provide tangible support to the people/cause it supports. There are hundreds of wonderful research and education based organizations out there, but we have chosen to work with organizations that deliver direct services to those in need. This doesn’t mean we won’t work with an organization that deals primarily in education; we just need to know exactly where ARMY’s money is going to be going to be as transparent as possible with our campaign material. This is why we always have the organization tell us what they’re going to spend the money on and give ARMY the details both at the start of the campaign and in the campaign report. The only exception we’ve ever made to this rule was our June 2018 campaign for BTS’ LOVE MYSELF campaign. Smaller size for bigger impact: Next, we look for organizations that are small enough to see a big benefit from ARMY donations. This is not to discount the good work large organizations are doing, but a non-profit that only receives $100,000 in donations each year will be helped much more than a non-profit that receives $1,000,000+ in donations each year. Another reason for working with smaller organizations is that they tend to be more responsive to our emails. An organization that has to coordinate national campaigns and fundraising drives is less likely to open a dialogue with us over a one-time fundraiser than an organization who have less on their plate. Financial Transparency & Good Reputation: We also do everything in our power to run a background check on the organization. This includes obvious avenues like using Charity Navigator, Charity Watch and other assessment tools, but since we tend to work with smaller organizations that don’t meet the evaluation criteria for being assessed, we have to use other means as well. This includes: doing a Google search for the organization name + keywords like “scandal” “scam” “misuse” “homophobic” “racist” etc., reading all news articles we can find on the organization, reading all public financial reports posted by the organization, and reading the reviews on their Facebook page (if applicable). We also check how their donations are used; ideally with the majority going to providing direct services rather than into overhead and administrative costs. Good Communication: We also need to establish a dialogue with them before the campaign starts to ensure 1) they can provide everything we need (a custom donation page with as many payment options as possible, a final report with the total of funds raised, a clear line of communication with a designated contact person so we can troubleshoot things like payment errors during the campaign, and a follow up report at some point in the future showing us how our funds were used) and 2) so our outreach team can get a sense of their character. Every month, we reach out to between 2-5 organizations. Often, we don’t hear back from them until after our deadline has passed (please see question 10 for a breakdown of how long it takes to plan a campaign). Other times, we have had to decline partnerships because the organization can’t provide us with one or more of the things we need. Since there still seems to be misinformation around this point, we want to be very clear: we have never rejected an organization because of the cause they support. We have never rejected an organization due to any association with sexuality, gender identity, race, ethnicity, or religion – either on the part of the organizers or the people they support. The only identity that prevents us from working with an organization is political – our campaigns must stay strictly non-political as it’s not our place as fans to attach BTS’ name to any kind of global politics. This does not however, prevent us from running campaigns in countries that are experiencing political turmoil. In November 2018, we partnered with Cuatro Por Venezuela due to the ongoing humanitarian crisis, but we kept our campaign limited to providing funds to send formula to a hospital in Caracas. Nor does it prevent us from signal boosting political events like the student protests in Bangladesh. There is a difference between sharing information and making a direct statement by supporting a political party or cause. In the 2018/2019 birthday season we tied the campaign to a core value or the personal experiences of the member (Example: Jungkook left home at an early age to live with other young teens not much older than him, and their close relationship helped him grow into the man he is today [ KKOOM]. Namjoon soothes his mind by going to rivers and beaches when he's stressed or needs to relax, loves the small creatures that live there, and is very conscious of environment and sustainability [ Gili Eco Trust]. Jimin has had dance as a major factor in his life since he was young, and highly values education; he excelled as top student, both at dance and academically [ MindLeaps]. And so on). We realized, however, that this excluded many causes that we want to run a campaign around (eg human trafficking, support for gender-confirmation surgery, seniors programs, animal rescue, etc) and given that there are 7 members plus our own birthday, that only left 4 months a year to try and fit in causes that didn’t fit our birthday model. As promised, we changed how we operate birthday campaigns for the 2019/2020 season. ARMY are now directly involved in choosing which cause they want to support for each member's birthday. We began by polling ARMY on what causes they would like to see for each member. We then narrowed it down to the top causes for each member (as determined in the first poll) and asked ARMY to rank their preference for the first 3 campaigns. Since there are always new topics that ARMY may feel strongly about supporting, we felt it would be best to poll for the first 3 birthdays now, and wait until we get closer to the last 4 and then poll for them.

21. Why did you make the Crisis Carrd Directory?

Originally posted on Twitter June 12, 2020.

Every day, we are inspired by the enthusiasm we see in ARMY to bring a positive change in the world. Because we are such a huge fandom, even the smallest of efforts can have amazing results. ARMY's passion resonates with OIAA, and so we try to launch campaigns which support organizations and projects that are making a tangible impact on people’s lives. OIAA is comprised of volunteers who work several months in advance to research and vet organizations that need support, set up campaigns, and carry them out, all while making sure that the entire process is trackable to maintain our transparency. Taking into account the time required to complete this process, we restrict ourselves to monthly campaigns. Also, because OIAA is a charity-focused account, it is difficult and unusual for us to support any other type of activity. For more details on how we work, please visit the FAQ section of our website. We are completely aware that there are a lot of pressing issues in the world that demand everyone’s attention. As and when we get information on these issues, we investigate the projects run by other ARMY and support any that fit our sharing rules. For situations that demand our urgent attention, because we are not able to launch an immediate campaign, we work on crisis threads. Using these threads, we highlight organizations that are working on each specific cause. ARMY can direct their donations and support to these organizations. All the information for the threads, campaigns, and ARMY projects highlighted can be found on our socials. However, even with the crisis threads, we are not able to take on all of the causes and the reasons why vary. Crisis threads, like any other campaign, need thorough research because the team has to search for the right organizations: they cannot be personal fundraisers, and must also fit our other guidelines. Sometimes, the resources are just not available to make the thread. On other occasions, we have no spare time or members because the team is already occupied with another campaign. Lastly, because there are always so many issues happening at the same time, we are not able to cover everything. Though we may not be able to get to all, it does not mean that we don’t consider these causes important or that we won't potentially cover them in the future. Instead, we work on whatever we are able to at any given point of time, depending on our volunteers' availability. For up-to-date information, please visit our Crisis Carrd Directory which hosts information on how to donate to current crisis as well as crisis our team is already researching.

22. Can you raise awareness of [insert issue here]?

There are millions of problems in the world that need attention. Trying to tackle/handle every one would not only burn us out, but it would overwhelm and stress all of you as well. Not only that, occasionally, misleading political information and propaganda can be easily spread if people are not educated on the situation they are 'raising awareness' about.

Therefore, to be fair, to avoid accidentally sharing misinformation, and to keep from overwhelming ourselves, we had to draw boundaries for what we will share, and we have to apply the same rules to everyone. We are a charity account, so we focus on ways that people can tangibly help in a situation, and we stick to that role so that we can continue to function.