Results tagged “fundraising” from Uncivil Society
My last post featured a BBC satire of charitable fundraisers typified by a calculus of moral nihilism. Here's an upcoming event that's far more thoughtful: the Disabled and Sexy fashion show for the UK's Jennifer Trust for Spinal Muscular Dystrophy.
Unlike the ersatz porn stars of the Ladies Guild of Kneesley, this Notting Hill event isn't just about doing anything for cash. The fashion show reflects how the charity does more than treat a disease, an effort that itself can make people feel as if they've been reduced to a set of symptoms. Rather, the initiative celebrates the participants' full humanity, an aim that is as meaningful as providing medical care.
In this BBC Comedy video, The Ladies Guild of Kneesley skewers recent efforts by charities to sex up their fundraising. While the tactic can work for some organizations--particularly those with sexuality-related missions--far too often it's an uneasy fit, with lame jokes and blatant objectification rationalized by a good cause.
PUTTING THE FUN IN FUNDRAISING EXTRA: This vintage trend piece from the Washington Post describes (ostensibly) wacky sexy fundraising as a trait of social entrepreneurship. Who knew? And somewhat related, this recent article from Australia notes that donating sex toys & bongs may not be the best way to support your local charitable thrift store.
Cell phones, China's commodities purchases or misleading new metrics? An interesting question raised by Paul Kedrosky using data from Wolfram Alpha. One commenter suggests Kiva, but no one really seems to buy that explanation.
Check out Alwyn Young's 2009 study, The African Growth Miracle for more data suggesting that we may need to move past the stock images of Western charitable colonialism.
A powerful use of cartoon imagery in an ad for Brazil's Children's Cancer Support Center.
Still, as this incident from Oregon reminds us, a charity is not immune from intellectual property claims pertaining to the use of copyrighted or trademarked cartoons. Even children's cancer charities have been known to receive cease & desist letters.
I saw this pull up on Union Square during my walk today--the Cosmopolitan/Maybelline Kisses for the Troops truck, which used a donation to the USO in a record-setting kiss initiative to get people to line up to try a new line of Maybelline lipsticks. A seamless integration of commercial branding and charity, the effort was at least as clever as a Basket of Kisses.
UPDATE: Is Michael Jackson's charity a fake?
Originally posted on JustMeans:
I had at least three posts I was considering to put up today, but when I ducked into the nearest library while on a research quest the guards were heatedly discussing Michael Jackson. Their somber intonations that this is a historic day got me curious, so instead of jumping right to JustMeans--a great site, but like your typical social business hub admittedly not the best place to catch the latest celebrity gossip--I hit the usual suspects to discover that Michael Jackson had just died.
Since we live a culture pretty much defined by the cult of personality (Josef Stalin, social innovator!), I've decided to set aside my thoughts on The Philanthropist, American Apparel and social censorship for a day when most of us aren't fervently Twittering "Michael Jackson is dead" just in case someone hasn't noticed the other 50,000 tweets about the news.
Instead, I want to offer a few brief memorial reflections about Michael Jackson and social enterprise.
Jackson, as this book documents, was quite active in charity, at one point breaking the Guinness record for most charities supported by a pop star. And whatever one thinks of his various activities at Neverland Ranch, it's pretty clear that he saw his life there as a way of giving back to the community. Jackson also was involved in high profile benefit singles--and therein lies another less well known controversy.
As Jackson testified in a business-related trial, the donation of proceeds from the sale of a charity song did not mean, for Jackson, donating all of the profits. The money from the sale of CDs went to charity, but Jackson retained the song's copyright & personally kept the royalties. This caused a bit of dustup when the news media learned that a any time "We Are the World" or the 9/11 charity song "What More Can I Give?" get played on the radio, the proceeds go to not to charity but to the copyright holders, including Jackson himself.
The dustup over Jackson's alleged charitable profiteering provides an instructive example about social business for those of us in the social enterprise community. In our world, as in the music industry more generally, the idea of getting some personal returns from a charitable enterprise is not inherently problematic----musicians need to earn a living just like anyone else, even professional nonprofiteers. Besides Michael Jackson, John Lennon had some rather pointed things to say about this, astutely observing how various promoters & benefit workers profit from charitable work but expect musicians to give all their labor for free. Nonetheless, there's a popular impression that a charitable benefit should be wholly outside the realm of exchange, to the point that no one in the endeavor--not even the grunts--should get paid.
The fact that this expectation exists does not, of course, mean that we have abide by it, but for those of us who don't have the luxury of being international superstars this perspective can pose some difficult problems, from loss of needed donor support to the occasional legislative crackdown.
But more about that another day. For now, a moment of silence for a man who, like so many of us, gave as much as he felt that he could.
From today's PostSecret
In a world without sexual harassment law, Auctioning Charity uses a charity auction as the launching point for reflection on the tension between commerce and human dignity--well, that and the fulfillment of a boss's fantasy to dominate Charity, his female VP. An excerpt:
“It’s about the executive auction,” she said. . . .
“The image of the female on the auction block,” she said now, evidently deciding on the direct approach, “is rather repugnant, don’t you think?”
He narrowed his gaze. “As opposed to a male being sold?”
Her full lips formed into a pouty, irritated frown. Oh, how he would like to explore the full range of her emotions, putting her under absolute control, manipulating her pleasure and her pain, her agony and ecstasy, for endless hours.
To begin, he would like to take her in his arms and overpower her with a kiss, reducing all her arguments to a single, panting, breathing motion, only one word left in her vocabulary—Yes.
Correction—two. Yes, Master.
“You know what I mean, Roger. There are a preponderance of images and cultural metaphors surrounding the exploitation of the female body.”
Roger snorted. “Good heavens, woman, it’s a charity dinner. I have no intention of selling you into white slavery.”
No, he just intends to buy her.
Sad to say, I've met executives just like Roger.
Blah.
Via Animal NY, a new embedded giving initiative:
As Fleet Week rolls into town Tuesday, one Manhattan strip club will be waiting with a special drink called the Drunken Captain and, the owners say, all proceeds will go back to the troops.
HeadQuarters, located just blocks from the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum on the West Side, is selling the cocktail for $16 during Fleet Week. Military personnel can buy it for $10.
"All of us here at HeadQuarters appreciate all the men and women who put themselves at risk every day to allow us to have the freedom to express ourselves," general manager Serafina Fiori said.
"We welcome them always so they can see firsthand what they're fighting for!"
The Drunken Captain is a mixture of coconut, mango and pineapple rums with a little pineapple juice and a splash of cranberry.
Fiori said proceeds from the sales of the drink will go to the Soldiers', Sailors', Marines', Airmen's & Coast Guard Club in Murray Hill. The club has been housing soldiers and veterans while they visit the Big Apple for the past 90 years.
Museums have come to see fashion and pop culture as effective means for generating financial support. One upcoming case in point: the Minnesota History Center's RetroRama runway show, Fashion Comes Full Circle, featuring the work of local designers inspired by designs from the 1920s through '60s. The event also features shopping at a vintage boutique.
RetroRama, www.mnhs.org/retrorama, is an event hosted by the Minnesota Historical Society to celebrate the popular culture of the twentieth century and illustrate how the past has influenced the present. Featuring fashion, décor, music, dancing and related activities, RetroRama transports young and old back to a time when the Barbie was born and American Bandstand was all the rage. RetroRama also offers attendees the chance to experience popular games and crafts. From pop-up books to placemats, the do-it-yourself craft stations allow event-goers to take home a piece of retro style.
In the last major interview before his death, John Lennon addressed the question of why he refused to join a proposed Beatles reunion charity concert. It's a fascinating inside look at the business of benefits circa 1980:
So here I am, in week three of the seemingly unending bug or whatever the !*#&?! it is, where just the subway ride to the office pretty much knocks me out for the day. No matter--gotta soldier on, pip pip tally ho and all that. Perhaps I should take the advice of this 1889 British Medical Journal ad and consume some Cadbury Cocoa, noted among the era's doctors for its healthy "Flesh-forming constituents."
Well, maybe not, especially given my recent lack of exercise--but for more on Cadbury's various do-gooding past and present, check out my latest piece on JustMeans.
Also worth checking out:
- Thanks, Mitch Kapor Foundation!
- The Schulz Library
- A science museum angles for visitors with Star Trek memorabilia
- Will government-backed copies of Harlem Children's Zone retain its core practices or dilute them?
- Netflix is now streaming the documentary Helvetica, which describes the roots of the typeface in the social responsibility ethic of early modernist design. If you have a chance to see this film, do.
- A superhero-themed charity race
The sex and social marketing trend hits the Wellington Zoo, whose new advertising campaign blends an orgasmic audio track with an adults-only theme to attract Valentine's Day business for its dining room. You don't actually get to have sex at the zoo; what you're really buying is a candlelight dinner overlooking an animal enclosure.
Back in 1980, the future senator parodies charitable fundraising. The mournful background music is spot on.
I once had a conversation with a charity leader who expressed frustration with the fact that images of homeless people and recovering drug users had little fundraising appeal compared to other charities' pictures of babies and puppies. It's a fair point--evolutionary scientists note that we're coded to want to protect cute, soft, dependent li'l critters. Babies are the reason, of course, but canines have managed to leverage our instincts by mimicking the traits of human infants and young children well into doggy adulthood--which is perhaps one reason the tax code defines charitable activity to include "the prevention of cruelty to children and animals."
It's something I've been thinking about a bit this holiday season, thanks to attempts to raise funds or market products with commercials set to Silent Night--a musical expression of the help-the-baby drive. The first is for the ASPCA. The second, a popular Pampers commercial that has been used not just to sell diapers, but for a cause marketing tie-in. The third--Silent Night in the rainforest.
After a busy day of excellent meetings and futile attempts to use my time on the train to catch up with my writing, I'm taking a moment to catch up with all things charity. First I took a moment to think about this article from Alpha Mummy (via the always informative Alanna Shaikh) concerning the frivolity of purchasing costumes for kids' charity events. It's a topic that I've puzzled over a bit myself for a while, from my times as a student sitting in on charity dinners whose cost was several multiples of the beneficiary's monthly budget to my periodic perusal of local charity events on New York Social Diary.
For an example of a charity benefit that has taken to heart the importance of not spending too much money on costumes for a fundraiser, via the decidedly NSFW--if not NSFHome--Fleshbot, we have Pants to Poverty, a charity that recently set the world's record for most people gathered together in their underwear.
Speaking of which, one of about 73 things I really enjoyed about today's YLS shindig was our discussion about what I'm up to here with all the stuff you don't typically see on social enterprise & charity sites. It's always refreshing to have those conversations (and comments and emails and tweets--thanks to all of you!), because beneath all my admitted goofiness this really is all part of a much bigger project, one that is heavily influenced by such childhood exemplars as McLuhan's inventory of effects and Andy Warhol's disconnected yet engaged watcher. Sometime when it's not 1:25 a.m. I'll explain more, but for now I sense the summons of the robe of not-quite-everlasting night.
An intriguing Ad Age podcast* on the marketing success of the Dos Equis promotion featuring a traveling freak show got me thinking about how charities use carnivals to raise funds. A post here a couple days ago noted that carnival events at ag fairs can be exempt from the unrelated business income tax. Above: The Burlesque Breast Fest, an upcoming "burlesque carnival event" to benefit breast cancer survivor programs. Featured dancers, an astrologer and psychic, circus performers--all in all, a night of "fun festive fundraising."
There's even an alcohol tie-in: sponsorship by P.I.N.K. Vodka, including an open bar!
Picture via Sucia @ Madame X
*If you're into social enterprisey things, the 3 Minute Ad Age podcasts are chock full of useful strategies and insights.
Another charity-studded week for comics, which, like fashion, has become a significant presence in do-gooder fundraising. Via the Beat, news of two worlds colliding in last night's superhero fashion event at this year's Chocolate Show.
Trade shows fascinate me, because in the nonprofit & tax-exempt world they illustrate how identity design can lead us to see business as something distinct from business. The effect becomes even more interesting when you compare nonprofit trade shows to their for-profit counterparts. The Chocolate Show is run by a for-profit PR firm, but are the exhibitors there any more businesslike than drug vendors at an AMA convention, the publishers & resellers at the San Diego Comic Con or the industry promotion at the Oscars?
And then there's my favorite tax-exempt activity--the freak shows, rigged games and rides at agricultural fairs. You may think they're an ordinary profit-making enterprise, but as we tax-savvy do-gooders know, they're one of us!
Facing pressure from state attorneys general, Craigslist has announced that it will no longer allow escorts to place ads for free. The company has responded to criticism that it would be profiting from sex by announcing that all the proceeds will go to charity.
Because as every professional do-gooder knows, giving the profits to charity makes everything OK.
I'd say more to say about this, but I have to go check out some property for my new social enterprise brothel!
UPDATE: Melissa Gira raises a key point about the ethics of charities accepting the money from these ads. Government crackdowns on sex work tend to have serious negative consequences for the health and safety of workers forced underground; enforcement efforts also tend to be discriminatory.
Should good causes benefit from harmful acts? The question is important, yet far less discussed than it should be, especially in social enterprise circles. Though occasionally it does bubble up, as in the EPA's recent decision to withdraw a proposal to allow cause marketing on pesticides.
I guess the issue is a lot more clear cut when we're dealing with insects and animals, as opposed to women who have sex with innocent men.
