Are you a celebrity - someone famous, someone with name-recognition
and, perhaps, some wealth to spare - who wants to use his or her
fame and money and influence for good? Are you overwhelmed by
requests to be a spokesperson, participant in a charity event, or
make a financial donation? Perhaps you want to start a foundation
that makes grants to others or undertakes its own activities - or
improve the one you have already?
Many celebrities see their fame as an opportunity to help improve
people's lives, encourage better treatment of the environment,
address an injustice, even to advance legislation, and it's a
tradition for celebrities to champion causes and lend their name to
help various charitable or activist causes.
But many celebrities don't think strategically about the
philanthropic and activist activities they might want to undertake.
The result of not being strategic may be wasted energy and even
negative publicity, despite the best of intentions. And some
celebrities are so overwhelmed with requests to contribute in some
way to a charitable effort, human rights campaign or environmental
cause that they just say no to everything rather than try to screen
and evaluate them all.
This web page is meant to give celebrities, or their staff members,
some very basic resources to help their philanthropy and activist
activities be effective, actually make a positive difference and not
be completely overwhelming.
Celebrity philanthropy and activism takes many forms. A person with
some fame to his or her name may:
Note the incredible variety of ways different celebrities engage in
philanthropy:
Geena Davis founded the Geena Davis
Institute on Gender in Media
Prince
Quietly Helped Afghan Orphans for Years
Profile
of Richard Gere's philanthropic activities in insidephilanthropy.com
Dolly Parton's literacy program, Imagination
Library
A
blog that profiles the philanthropic efforts of NFL players
Madieu Williams, Nnamdi Asomugha and Israel Idonije
Charles Grodin's, who has volunteered with inmates at the Bedford
Hills Correctional Facility in New York and who advocates
for prison sentencing reform.
Isabel Allende
Foundation, which primarily supports nonprofits in California
and Chile that provide vulnerable women and children with access to
reproductive care, healthcare, education and protection from
violence.
Entertainment
Industry Foundation (EIF). Founded in 1942, nonprofit
highlights the work of a variety of celebrities regarding a range of
causes.
Insidephilanthropy.com profiles a variety of celebrity foundations via its Glitzy Giving list and its list of the top 20 philanthropists of color (2016).
If you want to use your money, fame and/or influence for good, or
plan your philanthropic activities more strategically, where do you
begin?
You cannot support every cause you care about. No one can.
Just like a business, you should think carefully about defining the
purpose of your philanthropic activities and have an overall
philosophy or mission for such. A purpose statement or mission
statement helps you focus your philanthropy and activism in a more
meaningful way and allows you to say "no" more easily - and you are
going to be saying "no" a LOT. Creating a purpose statement helps a
celebrity target philanthropy and activism so that the person's
activities can have maximum impact on a particular cause, or set of
causes, or community, or set of communities.
You can define an initial mission or purpose for your philanthropy
and activism, hold on to it for a year or two, and then revisit it
and revise it - don't think that your first mission statement
forever. What's more important about trying to have a perfect
purpose statement right from the start is simply creating something
simple, a work-in-progress statement that provides some boundaries
for you for a year or two.
Start by making a list of issues that you have a personal
connection with. Did you benefit in some way from a music program in
your school? From a program that gave you access to a sport or the
theater? From a mentor who steered you in the right direction? From
having access to a playground? Did you face challenges that harmed
you in your life: experiences with domestic violence, with lack of
good nutrition, with lack of access to a library, with lack of
access to a safe, clean green space, with homelessness, with
discrimination, etc.? Don't make this list in just one day: make the
list and add to it over many days. As you revisit and update your
list, the causes you most want to support will probably emerge.
Remember that you can always add to the list of causes you support -
it's just a good idea to pick just one or two, or very few, to
start. You may already feel strongly about an issue that you have no
personal connection with but you know you want to support it. That's
okay too!
Think about what you would want success to look like in supporting
a particular cause. Your support for people experiencing
homelessness isn't going to solve homelessness, but would you be
satisfied with your support for programs that reduce the number of
homeless children in a particular community? Your support for
programs that help women experiencing domestic violence isn't going
to stop all domestic violence, but would you be satisfied with the
launch of the first and only nonprofit in a community helping these
women?
Consider visiting some nonprofits engaged in the kinds of
activities you want to support. Feel free to request that such
visits and meetings be done with no publicity, but do remember that
you are taking up the time of staff, so consider making a small
donation to any nonprofit you visit as a way to cover that time
spent briefing you about their work and the issue they address.
You or your foundation (if you have such) should consider hiring a person who is dedicated to researching any nonprofit, NGO, school or specific program you are considering for support, even if your support will be as simple as writing a letter of endorsement the organization can use in its promotional materials. That person should be able to:
If you are just starting philanthropic activities, I strongly recommend you start your activities with something simple and local, so you and those you are going to charge with managing your philanthropic endeavors can learn how to manage these activities, get a sense after a year or so of what works best, build relationships with nonprofits, schools, etc. That also allows a celebrity and the representatives of such to grow activities more organically and reach some small successes quickly.
A celebrity also needs to consider philanthropic activities during disasters - in the aftermath of a flood, fire, earthquake, hurricane, tornado or any widespread disaster, especially one that affects the communities you care about. This resource for corporations on how to cope with community disasters / emergency appeals will help a celebrity as well in thinking about how to prepare, now, for helping in a disaster later - otherwise, you will scramble for how to respond and, potentially, create more wasted than helpful effort.
If you are going to support efforts regarding women and girls empowerment, you need to make sure any company you are a part of is committed to gender equity in pay and promotions. If you are going to support responsible or sustainable environmental practices, you need to make sure any company you are a part of, as well as the houses you live, are using responsible and sustainable environmental practices - if you promote solar energy, you had best be relying on solar energy yourself. Look at how any company or household you are a part of is - or isn't - recycling and think about any contradictions you may be exhibiting in relation to the causes you are supporting.
my home page
To know when I have developed a new
resource related to the above subjects, found a great
resource by someone else, published
a
new blog or a new Tech4Impact email newsletter,
uploaded a new
video,
or to when & where I'm training or presenting, use any
of the following social media apps to follow me on any of
these social media platforms:
Disclaimer: No guarantee of accuracy or suitability is made by
the poster/distributor of the materials on this web site.
This material is provided as is, with no expressed or implied
warranty or liability.
See my web site's privacy policy.
Permission is granted to copy, present and/or distribute a limited amount of material from my web site without charge if the information is kept intact and without alteration, and is credited to:
Otherwise, please contact me for permission to reprint, present or distribute these materials (for instance, in a class or book or online event for which you intend to charge).
The art work and material on this site was created and is copyrighted 1996-2024