I had a link on my google home page last week informing me that Gisele (or, as I know her, Mrs. Brady) donated $1.5 million to Haiti relief organizations. Today there was a link that Jenifer Anniston had given $500,000 (like Jen, I gave somewhat less than Gisele myself). Like most people, I have seen a dozen other stories reporting large sums given by various celebs (President Obama noted today in meeting with the Lakers that the NBA Players Association has given $1M, while a number of NBA players have given large donations).
Does anyone know if the big, professional charities (like the Red Cross) encourage high profile people to make their donations public, as a way of stimulating giving from the rest of us? Or is the decision to make this kind of information public made by the celebrity's PR people? I have known some pretty high profile celebs in the past who gave very big bucks to charity but only on the condition that it be kept strictly confidential - and I know of at least one case in which the celeb really meant it, and refused to give a certain charity any more money because they spilled the beans on a particularly large gift. It doesn't really matter in terms of the charity - the people benefiting from the money don't give a shit if it was motivated by a need to stroke an ego or rehab an image. But I am just interested in the nuts and bolts of this. My wife was kind of cynical about the celeb donation revelations and I told her it was possible the charities asked them to make their donations public. I had a relative who was in charity fund raising years ago, and he would always want a high profile donor to make it public if at all possible. I am also wondering if celebs have some index they can use to guide how much they should give. When Anniston reads that she gave 1/3 as much as Gisele (or, I think, half as much as Jolie) does she get pissed off that she was outbid? Or in such situations does everyone check their egos at the door and give what they can to help as much as they can? -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
