Can a story move thousands of people to tears without moving anyone to action?

Judging by "My Family’s Slave," the Atlantic article that nearly broke the internet last week with its tale of a woman from the Philippines who was enslaved in modern-day America, the answer may be a disappointing yes. Because although it has inspired online conversations, according to anti-slavery nonprofits, it isn’t doing much to inspire actual donations.

"She was 18 years old when my grandfather gave her to my mother as a gift," wrote Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Alex Tizon in the 7,000-word piece, "and when my family moved [from the Philippines] to the United States, we brought her with us."

Her name was Eudora "Lola" Tomas Pulido, and Tizon’s posthumously published article goes into painful detail about the life she lived, absorbing decades of abuse while cooking, cleaning and caring for two generations of Tizon’s family, all without pay or even a proper bed. "No other word but slave encompassed the life she lived," he wrote.

The article quickly went viral. "It seemed like all anyone could talk about online," the Observer noted the day of its release (remarkable considering it coincided with President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey). A week later, it still sits atop the Atlantic’s "most read" list and has accumulated almost 20,000 shares on the magazine’s original Facebook post, which represents only a slice of the article’s actual reach. The article itself has more than 13,000 comments and counting.

But while the story has been aggregated and praised and critiqued—launching international conversations about modern slavery, and even inspiring backlash to the backlash—it hasn’t pushed the needle for organizations that combat slavery and human trafficking.