Due diligence key to successful partnerships with celebrity supporters

• Date: 01 January 2017
• Published date: 01 January 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nba.30268

JANUARY 2017

5

NONPROFIT BUSINESS ADVISOR

© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved

DOI: 10.1002/nba

Fundraising

Due diligence key to successful partnerships

with celebrity supporters

While many nonprots might salivate at the pros-

pect of having a marquee celebrity supporter serving

as their brand ambassador, increasing awareness and

bringing in new supporters and cash along the way,

there are some risks involved that could make such an

association more trouble than it’s worth, experts say.

According to Drew Hawkins and Melanie Schnoll

Begun, who handle philanthropic investments for

high-prole, high-net-worth clients at Morgan Stanley,

it’s important for charities to understand the nuances

of bringing on board athletes, entertainers and other

high-prole individuals who can offer star power, cash

and connections.

“If it’s not done right, it can actually do more harm

than good,” said Begun.

In their work with a wide range of athletes, enter-

tainers and their associated charities—including the

likes of Goldie Hawn, Christy Turlington and the

Amy Winehouse Foundation—Hawkins and Begun

have learned the importance of due diligence, both for

their clients and for the nonprots looking to partner

up with them.

“There needs to be an honest discussion about the

level of commitment the individual has for the cause

and organization,” Begun said. If their heart’s not

really into it, a celebrity might regret attaching their

name to a group or project, she said. They might not

fulll the responsibilities they signed on for—in terms

of appearances and fundraising support, for example.

In the end, the nonprot is worse off because it wasted

time and resources on an investment that didn’t pan

out.

“Too often, not enough time is spent establishing

expectations at the outset,” said Begun. “Both sides

need to be really clear—this is a business relationship.”

Nonprots also need to better understand the intri-

cacies of celebrity philanthropy. According to Begun,

where individuals are in their career cycle has a big

impact on how they manage their philanthropy. When

they rst start out, they often will focus their attention

on a cause they have a personal connection to, and

leverage their new popularity to draw attention to it.

But as their careers mature, their focus transitions to

establishing a legacy that will endure after their star

power has waned. The types of support and commit-

ments they can offer differ in each case. For younger

actors and musicians who have just hit the “big time,”

providing a public endorsement of a nonprot can be

far more valuable than making a nancial donation,

simply by clueing in a new generation of potential do-

nors that might not have paid much attention to that

particular issue if not for the celebrity’s involvement.

In contrast, aging stars may not connect as much with

millennials, but they can offer extensive networks of

inuential individuals and organizations with decades

of institutional knowledge looking to make lasting

change.

There’s also a big difference between how an actor

or musician approaches philanthropy and how an ath-

lete does so. According to Hawkins, most entertainers

have had their careers develop over the course of many

years, and their fame and level of inuence has risen

gradually. Marquee athletes, on the other hand, often

see their stars rise literally overnight, and the results

can be chaotic, he said.

“Many of these athletes are quite young and sud-

denly nd themselves with a lot of money and high

popularity,” Hawkins said. They want to do something

to give back to their communities, often aimed at

helping provide education or economic opportunity

in areas where there was none when they were coming

up. While that’s admirable, they might not understand

how much it will cost in terms of time and resources,

he said.

“The risk is that they overcommit—they sign on for

all kinds of different charities and causes, and their

star power gets a little diluted,” Hawkins said. “Their

(See CELEBRITY on page 8)

Have a nonprot question

or story idea you would like to share?

Contact Nicholas King, Editor, at

nkelwr@comcast.net