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Poll Reveals Facts about Charities and Celebrity Tie-ins

By Kristin Gabriel

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Published: 28May2010
Word count: 605
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As we have all seen, celebrities use their names and fame to hold benefits that are supposed to pull in donations. But does it really work to raise awareness and more funds?

Ours is a celebrity-driven culture, and many charities are eager to enlist the support of an actor, a rock star, or a big-name athlete to promote their causes. Many notable celebrities have helped nonprofit groups expand their profile and raise funds to benefit their organizations, especially in times of a crisis.

One thing that many people do not realize is that establishing relationships with a celebrity isn't an easy task. And not all celebrities donate their time free of charge. What should your organization know about working with celebrities? What are the pros and cons? A new poll suggests that few donors pick charities based on involvement from a celebrity.

The study was commissioned by Cone, a Boston company that helps charities and corporations conduct marketing projects. A poll surveyed 1,022 adults and found that 15 percent of Americans said they would be influenced by celebrities in deciding whether to support a particular non-profit.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy's annual survey of nearly 3,500 donors showed that Internet gifts to charities rose by about 5 percent in 2009. What's more,online giving continues to be a new trend for charities during the recession. Affluent people are increasingly more likely to use the Internet to make their charitable donations than before, however the rate of growth has slowed significantly.

This poll found that many charities are turning off some of their biggest donors - the donors gifting $1,000 or more. Why? Apparently, some charities send too many messages to donors who say they don't want them, while others don't take advantage of the interest many donors express in expanding their online interaction with nonprofit organizations.

The survey was based on data from 3,443 donors who had made gifts of at least $1,000 to a single cause in the past 18 months and donated an average of more than $10,896 per year to charities. Sixty-four percent of the donors were age 45 to 64, and 57 percent had incomes of at least $100,000.

The details of the results from the survey are as follows:
- Four out of five donors said they had made a charitable gift online
- A little more than half, 51 percent, said they prefer to use the Internet for their donations.
- 46 percent said that they expect to make a greater percentage of their charitable gifts online within the next five years.
- 56 percent said that charities send too many e-mail messages.
- 47 percent said they do not read as many messages from charities as they did in the past.
- 74 percent said it's inappropriate for a charity to obtain their e-mail address from a commercial database,
- 82 percent said they don't think it's right for charities to send them messages about another organization.
- 92 percent of donors like getting year-end tax receipts by e-mail.
- 83 percent want to get electronic updates on a charity's finances and spending.
- 74 percent said e-mail messages are appropriate when notifying donors that it's time to renew an annual gift or to explain how a donation has been spent.
- 81 percent of donors dislike messages that take an urgent tone in seeking a repeat donation.
- 46 percent of donors said the charity's messages do a good job of making them feel connected to the organization.
- 43 percent said the messages are well-written and inspiring.

In summary, this poll's results suggest that charities need to treat online communications with wealthy donors as a priority. Some non-profits have made good use of this fact, while others are still trying to catch up.

Kristin Gabriel is an author and social media marketing professional and works with Rocco Basile of the the Basile Builders Group based in New York. Basile is involved with several charities including Children of the City and the Joe DiMaggio Committee for Xaverian High School.

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