One more time now...

We are the world, we are the children . . .

In the “all Michael, all the time, 24/7 that we’ve seen over the last week,’’ Kragen says, the words seem to float to him from every television set, every radio airing a tribute to the late Michael Jackson, who cowrote “We are the World’’ with Lionel Richie.

Kragen, who lives in California, organized the January 1985 gathering of 45 artists - including Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Diana Ross, Cyndi Lauper, and the late, self-anointed King of Pop - to record the song. The proceeds went to United Support of Artists for Africa, a charity Kragen founded to help fight famine and poverty in the developing world, as well as hunger and homelessness here in the United States. The song generated more than $60 million for the charity, and continues to produce revenue to this day.

But it’s been a long time since the song’s heyday. It pulled in somewhere from $3 million to $4 million between 1995 and 2005, the most recent available figures.

And then the phone rang last week, five days after Jackson’s death, Kragen said. On the line was Marcia Thomas, the charity’s current head.

“You’re not going to believe this,’’ Thomas said, according to Kragen. “We’re up 3,000 percent in downloads.’’

In fact, according to the Independent Online Distribution Alliance, a digital distribution company in San Francisco, the song was downloaded 37,933 times on iTunes during the week of Jackson’s death, up from 1,243 the week before.

On Tuesday alone, the day of Jackson’s memorial service, the song was downloaded 16,015 times - generating between $8,000 and $12,000 for USA for Africa, by Kragen’s estimates. That’s more than the charity usually gets in a month.

“The jumps are huge, just huge,’’ said Kragen, who now sits on USA for Africa’s board of directors. He said that in all the initial hubbub surrounding Jackson’s sudden death - and subsequent playings of “We are the World’’ - it did not cross his mind that USA for Africa would benefit. According to its most recent financial filings, the charity regularly collects about $100,000 a year in public support, some of which is distributed in small grants.

It’s possibly the most interest in the song that the group has seen since the charity’s early days, when, Kragen says, no one expected USA for Africa to last more than a few months, never mind more than two decades.

The song’s popularity undoubtedly has helped the charity to stay viable, said Dan Pallotta, who writes about innovation in the nonprofit sector for the Harvard Business Review on his blog. Pallotta invented the multiday AIDSRide and Breast Cancer 3-Day, charity events that now take place nationwide.

He called “We are the World’’ the DNA of USA for Africa. “It is the charity, really,’’ he said. “People want the world to work [and because of that,] the song resonates with people in the deepest part of their soul.’’

The legacy of the song, Pallotta said, is bigger than the money.

“That song was ahead of its time in marrying philanthropy with marketing, and marrying commercialism with charity, which has not only led to wonderful projects like (Product) Red or the ONE Campaign, but has led to big consumer brand sponsorship of big events,’’ Pallotta said. “Ken and his work opened the door for the whole mega charitable event concept and opened the door to say, ‘It is OK to use the same marketing tools that sell beer to sell the end of hunger and the end of homelessness.’ ’’

Erin Ailworth can be reached at eailworth@globe.com.