This is a rather clever way to raise money for a controversial organization. The idea is, interested members of the community pledge a certain amount of money for each person that shows up to protest the organization. If a group of protesters show up, the pledgers donate the appropriate amount of money.
I first ran into this concept was when a pro-life group came to my campus to protest a local women's clinic. The clinic had a "Pledge a Picketer" fund raiser, and apparently raised a decent amount of money.
This is an interesting idea for two reasons:
- It uses cognitive dissonance against the protesters. Their goal is to hurt the organization in some way, but a direct result of protesting is getting funds for the organization. The more people they get to come, the more money their enemy will get.
- It means that the group holding a "Pledge a Picketer" wins either way. If no protesters show up, it's buisness as usual with no interuptions. If protesters do show up, well hey, more funds.