Yellowstone National Park is Making Thirst Traps. Your Nonprofit Should Take Notes.

Let us get this straight for you, me, and everybody else.

Yellowstone National Park fans – THE Yellowstone — are out here posting thirst trap videos on TikTok and helping the park raise critical awareness at a time when funding, support, and attention are at all-time lows.

Viral reels of shirtless dudes chopping wood spliced with shots of geysers.

Suggestive music over sweeping mountain vistas.

Innuendo so thicccc you could spread it on, well, anything your mind wants to really.

Here’s the thing: Yellowstone had nothing to do with the videos.

Fans found an opening to create some steamy content.

But instead of the Park shutting down the provocative content, they doubled down. 

And it’s working.

Too sexy for whom?

Here’s why we should stop clutching our pearls.

As a result of #ParkTok, Yellowstone’s TikTok account grew by one million followers when fans started creating content for the series in May 2025. (It’s still going, by the way.)

Stephen Colbert talked about it on his show and it got even bigger. 

People in comments are saying, “I’ve never been to Yellowstone but it’s now my favorite National Park.”

There are now countless #ParkTok accounts dedicated to the series, which originated with influencer Thoren Bradley. 

While Yellowstone doesn’t have any involvement with the series, now hilariously dubbed #OnlyParks, they’re still benefitting from the exposure and raising awareness of issues like National Park funding and environmental protections.

Benefitting in a way that wouldn’t have happened without Thoren’s bulging biceps surfacing from a serene pool of uninhabited water in the middle of Yellowstone National Park.

It’s not you. It’s the world—and everybody in it.

Budget cuts are real. Underfunded programs serving vulnerable populations are real. The systemic challenges your organization fights against every day are real.

Not a single human who has eyes, a brain and a heart is disputing that.

Nobody is thinking about your nonprofit right now, and while we’re not suggesting you need to turn your cause’s promotion into an episode of “Baywatch,” you do need to think about your audience’s attention spans and their appetite for novelty.

Not because they don’t care. 

Not because your mission isn’t important. 

But because every single human being on the planet is getting hit with a fire hose of content, news, outrage, and noise every waking second of every single day. The attention span of gnats - which I have long argued is the standard we’re competing against - looks generous compared to what we’re dealing with in 2026.

And in that environment, your beautifully worded, perfectly appropriate, committee-approved, board-reviewed, legal-vetted social media post about “the continued importance of equitable access to community resources” is getting scrolled past faster than eyes glaze over listening to my kid try to explain why they haven’t picked up their room when I asked them to over 2 hours ago and now it’s messier than before I put it on their chores list.

You know what’s NOT getting scrolled past?

Yellowstone fans posting a video that makes your grandma wince.

Now, not every nonprofit needs to post thirst traps

(Although, honestly, if your local food bank has the comedic chops to pull off a “these canned goods are stacked” video, I will personally share it everywhere.)

What we are saying is that the playbook we’ve been using, the classic “we’ve always done it this way” mantra, is not working in an attention economy that rewards the weird, the bold, and the unexpected.

Thoren Bradley, the Yellowstone creator, didn’t trivialize conservation. He got a million people to suddenly see our National Parks for what they are: nature worth protecting.

Granted, the method was a bit NSFW. But the result was exactly what every nonprofit development director dreams about. It created a novel environment for a community to create an accessible conversation.

Here’s what else to know about nonprofits and novelty content:

1. You have permission to be weird.

Your brand is your mission. 

How you communicate that mission should evolve with the times. And right now, the times are unhinged.

2. Attention is the currency. Everything else comes second.

You cannot educate, inspire, or solicit anyone who doesn’t know you exist. Getting eyeballs, by whatever (legal, ethical & authentic) means necessary, is not a distraction from the mission. It IS the mission’s front door.

3. The internet (and humans in general) rewards creativity over polish.

Nobody’s going viral for their annual report. Nobody’s building a movement with their e-newsletter template from 2019. The content that spreads is content that makes people feel something. That thing might be surprise, laughter, delight, shock. If your content strategy could be described as “professional and appropriate,” congratulations, you’re invisible and you’ll be wondering why, in a sea of nonprofits, you feel adrift.

4. You don’t have to do EXACTLY this. But you have to do SOMETHING different.

Maybe thirst traps aren’t your thing. Fine. Booooo, but fine. But what IS your version of “we threw the old playbook out and tried something nobody expected”? A behind-the-scenes blooper reel? Your ED doing a day-in-the-life TikTok? A ridiculous challenge? A partnership with a local comedian? Something. Anything that doesn’t start with “Dear valued supporters” and end with a thermometer graphic.

5. Your biggest competition isn’t other nonprofits. It’s everything else.

You’re not competing with the organization down the street for donor attention. You’re competing with Netflix, Amazon, TikTok, your crappy fantasy football team, the exhausting news cycle, your bonkers family group chat, and whatever fresh chaos the internet cooked up this morning. Act accordingly.

How to bridge the gap between viral and NSFW

When someone outside the sector sees a creative, funny, weird approach to raising awareness, their first thought is “this is brilliant,” and our sector’s first thought is “how dare you!?” That’s the gap that causes people to think nonprofits are stuffy, self-righteous, and out of touch.

In content marketing, when something goes viral that we didn’t plan ourselves, that’s called user-generated content.

Journalists call it earned media.

In philanthropy, we call it community engagement.

And it’s the HOLY GRAIL of organic content.

And while we can’t control what user-generated content gets created, sometimes the virality it causes is the best thing that can happen.

“But Patrick! This is serious work about serious things and being super cereal is important and we have super cereal donors!”

I know! That’s my whole damn point!

Those are two completely different things, and the nonprofit sector has been conflating them for decades.

If you’re questioning whether a little “shock factor” is effective in the nonprofit world, here are some real-life examples of incredibly powerful fundraising campaigns that used novelty to create awareness.

"F* the Poor"

A man wearing a shirt that said "F*** the Poor" was aimed at provoking angry reactions from passersby. When he flipped the sign to "Help the Poor," people ignored him. The video highlighted public apathy and went viral.

PETA’s "I’d Rather Go Naked" 

One of the most famous edgy campaigns, featuring celebrities posing nude to protest the fur industry. PETA frequently uses "racier" actions to fast-track attention in a 24-hour news cycle.

Salvation Army’s #TheDress

The organization used the viral "Blue or Gold Dress" optical illusion to create a domestic violence awareness ad with the caption, "Why is it so hard to see black and blue?"

Also, and this is not a political statement by any means:

If the President of the United States can say the wildest, most off-script, out-of-this-world things imaginable and dominate every news cycle - and the media covers it breathlessly because outrageous gets eyeballs - then maybe it’s time we stopped pretending that “appropriate” is a marketing strategy.

I’m not saying abandon your values. I’m not saying be reckless. I’m saying that the window where being creative, bold, and yes, a little weird, will actually break through the noise?

That window is open RIGHT NOW.

And it won’t be open forever.

So throw the “but we’ve always done it this way” playbook in the trash.

Unleash the creativity that’s been stifled by classic nonprofit culture and committee-approved everything.

Do something different. Be fun and memorable. Make somebody stop scrolling.

Because if Yellowstone can go from “nice family vacation spot” to “oh-that’s-the-spot” overnight, and use that attention to fight for its survival?

Your nonprofit can sure as hell figure out something, too.

You’ve freaking got this.

-Patrick

FAQ

Can nonprofits really use humor and viral trends in their marketing?

Yes. The seriousness of your mission doesn’t require serious marketing. Attention is the prerequisite for everything else - education, fundraising, advocacy. If humor or a trending format gets people to stop scrolling and pay attention to your cause, that’s not trivializing your work. That’s doing your job.

Won’t donors or board members be offended by edgy content?

Some might. But here’s the question worth asking: would you rather have a small group of insiders who approve of your messaging, or a large group of new people who actually know you exist? The donors and board members who matter will understand that creative marketing is a strategy, not a statement about the importance of the work.

What if our nonprofit doesn’t have the capacity for viral content?

You don’t need a production studio. Some of the most effective content is a staff member with a phone and a willingness to be real. Start small. Post something unscripted. Try a trend. See what happens. The bar for “better than what we’ve been doing” is probably lower than you think.

How do we balance being creative with staying on-mission?

Your mission is the anchor - it never changes. Your marketing is the sail - it should catch whatever wind is blowing. Every piece of creative content should lead people back to your mission, even if the path there is unconventional. Yellowstone’s thirst traps are ridiculous, but every single one ends with people talking about national park conservation. That’s the model.

Patrick Kirby is the founder of Do Good Better Consulting, a two-time Amazon bestselling author (Fundraise Like a 5th Grader and Fundraise Awesomer), keynote speaker, podcast host, and creator of Do Good YOUniversity. He helps nonprofits raise more money, engage better boards, and stop being the best-kept secret nobody asked them to keep.