Taylor Swift is an economic force all on her own. The superstar’s relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce brought not only eyeballs to his games but a monetary boost to the city overall. Thanks to her Eras tour, Swifties spent an estimated $5 billion across the country.
And most recently, she spurred fans to give more than $2 million in donations to the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s sea otter program—just by wearing an old t-shirt.
Earlier this month, Swift launched her “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl” movie, an 89-minute film tied to the release of her latest album. It was only shown in theaters for three days.
Eagle-eyed fans noticed how, in that film, Swift wore a 1993 Monterey Bay Aquarium t-shirt featuring an illustration of sea otters. And swiftly, “social media lit up with requests for us to bring it back,” Liz MacDonald, Monterey Bay Aquarium director of content strategy, said via email.
The Aquarium quickly realized this moment could be huge.
“It was an opportunity to elevate our Sea Otter Program to a global audience and engage new supporters in our conservation work in a big and fun way,” MacDonald says.
Long story shirt
Aquarium staff got to work building a donation campaign about the t-shirt. They tracked down the original artwork from the 1990s, first printed by Harborside Graphics. That company has since become a part of Liberty Graphics, an employee-owned cooperative, and the aquarium worked directly with Liberty to re-issue the design.
The campaign came together in about a week, offering the t-shirt for $65.13 (a nod to Swift’s favorite number, 13). In just seven hours, the aquarium hit its goal of raising $1.3 million.
The re-issue of the sea otter shirt has since raised more than $2.3 million for the aquarium’s sea otter program, which has rescued, rehabilitated, and returned threatened southern sea otter pups to the wild for more than 40 years.
The campaign was launched on Tiltify, an online fundraising platform that uses social media sites like Twitch and TikTok to foster virtual donations.
Tiltify’s flexibility and online experience (it has hosted campaigns for YouTube stars MrBeast and Jacksepticeye that brought donations in the double-digit millions in just hours) helped the aquarium respond to the viral moment, CEO Michael Wasserman says in a statement.
“When Swifties mobilized, we processed tens of thousands of orders . . . Most traditional donation platforms would crash handling 20,000 shirt orders in hours, plus 13,000+ backorders before the campaign had to pause for fulfillment,” Wasserman said. “This is the difference between modern giving and traditional fundraising—it’s interactive, social, and immediate.”
Even before the Tiltify campaign, Monterey Bay staff had noticed a bump of $13 donations coming in after Swift’s movie. But the t-shirt campaign went beyond what staff could have expected.
“The outpouring of love for the Aquarium is honestly touching,” MacDonald says, adding that she hopes the increased attention will draw even more people to the cause of helping sea otters. “We had a Taylor Swift dance party in the office when we hit our initial goal.”