On Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 9:09 PM, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > 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?
>From what I know, I'd have to say there are no hard and fast rules. Anybody can donate anonymously, no matter what the amount, and a celebrity who wants to keep his or her name out of an organization's database of donors will. It is also useful here to divide charity into donations made on a regular basis to organizations and one-time donations made under emergency conditions. Celebrities who make large donations on a regular basis are encouraged to publicly identify with the organization or its goals. Large donors (of any kind) are encouraged to visit the headquarters of the organization, meet with leaders, discuss possible activities together, etc. And from the eyes of the organization, once a potentially large donor is identified, the advancement or development staff (that's what they call the fundraisers) will want to spend time with the donor to be friendly and find out what they have in common with talk of the donation coming later. Some celebrities establish foundations to handle their charitable gifts. A foundation should have an executive director to match the celebrity's values to organizations and the exec director will spend all the necessary time with the fundraisers. In terms of emergency situation donations, I think the public is educated enough, or cynical enough, to know that somebody can be a complete narcissist or serial adulterer or whatever and still give a lot of money to a charity. The idea of a donation being an investment in PR has passed - maybe a tabloid reporter will think the donation stands for something, but I'm less convinced about the public in general. Tom -- 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
