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Sting and The Police perform at the Tokyo
Dome in Tokyo, Japan, 2008.
AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi
Dome in Tokyo, Japan, 2008.
AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi
Celebrity Charities: Good Will or Good PR?
May 25, 2008 6:00 PM
by
findingDulcinea Staff
Critics slam Sting’s rainforest charity, saying too little of the money raised goes to the forests he professes to save.
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According to the New York Post, Sting’s 2006 Carnegie Hall charity concert raised over $2 million to save the world’s rainforests, but less than half of that—$887,374—actually funded “tree-saving programs.”
Sandra Minuitti, a spokeswoman for charity evaluator Charity Navi, said that compared to other charities, Sting’s Rainforest Foundation "would fall to the bottom of the bucket.”
With Sting’s next fundraising concert scheduled for this Thursday, there’s no doubt critics will be watching to see where the money goes.
However, Sting is not the only celebrity to have charity trouble.
Sammy Sosa started a foundation in 1998 to help victims of Hurricane George in his native Dominican Republic. But the athlete was heavily criticized for the foundation’s poor organization. A year and a half after its inception, the Sosa Foundation went broke.
In addition, Al Gore and Arnold Schwarzenegger have been criticized for advocating environmentally friendly lifestyles while at the same time leaving large carbon footprints. Gore has been slammed for living in a large home, and Schwarzenegger has been lambasted for driving a Hummer.
However, charities can benefit from celebrity endorsements. According to The New York Times Magazine, stars can bring publicity to a cause that non-celebrities cannot.
“Stars—movie stars, rock stars, sports stars—exercise a ludicrous influence over the public consciousness … stars have learned that their intense presentness in people’s daily lives and their access to the uppermost realms of politics, business and the media offer them a peculiar kind of moral position, should they care to use it,” writes the Times.
Sandra Minuitti, a spokeswoman for charity evaluator Charity Navi, said that compared to other charities, Sting’s Rainforest Foundation "would fall to the bottom of the bucket.”
With Sting’s next fundraising concert scheduled for this Thursday, there’s no doubt critics will be watching to see where the money goes.
However, Sting is not the only celebrity to have charity trouble.
Sammy Sosa started a foundation in 1998 to help victims of Hurricane George in his native Dominican Republic. But the athlete was heavily criticized for the foundation’s poor organization. A year and a half after its inception, the Sosa Foundation went broke.
In addition, Al Gore and Arnold Schwarzenegger have been criticized for advocating environmentally friendly lifestyles while at the same time leaving large carbon footprints. Gore has been slammed for living in a large home, and Schwarzenegger has been lambasted for driving a Hummer.
However, charities can benefit from celebrity endorsements. According to The New York Times Magazine, stars can bring publicity to a cause that non-celebrities cannot.
“Stars—movie stars, rock stars, sports stars—exercise a ludicrous influence over the public consciousness … stars have learned that their intense presentness in people’s daily lives and their access to the uppermost realms of politics, business and the media offer them a peculiar kind of moral position, should they care to use it,” writes the Times.
Headline Link: ‘It's a Charity Pall: Sting’s “Waste Forest”’
The New York Post reports that another problem with Sting’s Rainforest Foundation is its “apparent hoarding of donations. In 2006, it reported $10 million in net assets––including nearly $5 million in cash––to the IRS.” According to charity watchdog Charity Navigator, “efficient charities ... rarely bank more than what is needed to pay a year's expenses.”
Source: New York Post
Related Topics: Celebrity criticism and success stories
The problem with celebrity causes
Paris Hilton drew attention last year when she planned a humanitarian trip to Rwanda. ”Some are questioning Hilton's motives for linking up with a humanitarian aid organization, wondering if she's only doing it in effort to revive her tarnished reputation, or if she is truly involved in the charity Playing for Good's cause,” reported ABC News in October 2007.
Source: ABC News
Just a year and a half after debuting, Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa's namesake foundation was in disarray. In April 2000, Fortune reported that "seven thousand pounds of food, clothing, and medical equipment have been accumulating $2,000-a-month storage charges in a Miami warehouse since last fall. What's more, there's no evidence that Sosa, who's halfway through a four-year, $42.5 million contract, has ever made a significant cash contribution to his own foundation. (Even rival McGwire pitched in $100,000 last year.)”
Source: Fortune
Stars who take advocacy seriously
“Celebrities are master recruiters. If you’re trying to expand beyond the already converted, there’s no better way to do instant outreach than to have a familiar face where people want to know more about what they’re doing in their personal lives,” John Prendergast, a longtime activist on African issues told The New York Times Magazine.
Source: The New York Times Magazine
The organization that George Clooney helped found, Not on Our Watch, has given away more than $9 million to aid the crisis in Darfur. But he still worries that critics may be right in asserting that celebrity charity work is motivated by vanity, writes Joel Stein in Time. "I've been very depressed since I got back. I'm terrified that it isn't in any way helping. That bringing attention can cause more damage. You dig a well or build a health-care facility and they're a target for somebody," Clooney says. "A lot more people know about Darfur, but absolutely nothing is different. Absolutely nothing."
Source: Time
Princess Diana was well known for her heartfelt dedication to charities, including her work on behalf of the homeless, disabled and those with HIV/AIDS. She also spent much of her time fighting against the use of landmines. “Although the Princess was renowned for her style and was closely associated with the fashion world, patronising and raising the profile of younger British designers, she was best known for her charitable work,” according to the Official Web Site of the British Monarchy.
Source: The Official Web Site of the British Monarchy
Kevin Bacon started the philanthropy organization SixDegrees.org, named after the popular game that involves linking Bacon to other movie stars. “The game is now Bacon's force for good. It's ‘social networking with a social conscience,’ as he puts it,” Variety reported in July 2007.
Source: Variety
Opinion & Analysis: Not so ‘green’
Debra J. Saunders criticized both Al Gore and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for their carbon footprints in an April 2007 piece in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Schwarzenegger can boast about signing a bill that calls for California to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions by 25 percent by the year 2020—but don't expect him to curb his own supersize emissions.”
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
“You hippy-crites!” exclaims U.K. newspaper The Daily Mail to celebrities who do not practice what they preach, when it comes to being “green.” Brad Pitt, for instance, drives a hybrid Toyota Prius and has been an advocate of rebuilding eco-friendly homes in storm-damaged parts of New Orleans, but “in fact, Pitt and his wife Angelina Jolie are massive consumers of oil thanks to their addiction to private jet travel,” according to the story. The Daily Mail cites other celebrities the paper believes to be disingenuous, incuding Leonardo DiCaprio, Coldplay singer Chris Martin and Madonna.
Source: The Daily Mail
Reference: How to find a worthwhile cause
The findingDulcinea Web Guide to Philanthropy and Nonprofits provides ways to donate to or volunteer with various charity and nonprofit groups. The guide also offers information on how to determine the legitimacy of an organization.
Source: findingDulcinea
Charity Navigator, an independent Charity evaluator, assesses the financial health of over 5,300 American charities. The watchdog rated Sting’s Rainforest Foundation one of the worst in the country.
Source: Charity Navigator
The Look to the Stars Web site features information on over 1,000 charities and celebrity charity news.
Source: Look to the Stars
© 2008 Dulcinea Media, Inc.
