Celebrities, life and Charities

When I worked at UNICEF, there was a real warmth and affection from donors and supporters for Audery Hepburn which I have never seen at any other charity since.  I did not see any other UNICEF celebrity have the same kudos as Hepburn.

I was fascinated to read The UK Public Opinion Monitor (UK-POM) 12th survey of the UK Public Opinion Monitor undertaken  in April 2012 with  2,842  valid responses on famous people, celebrities and their work in the public domain.


The work was undertaken by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) Sussex in the UK and
the University of Guelph in Canada.  The panel was broadly representative of the UK population, with sample weights  used to correct for any remaining instances of over or under-representation.

It seems, having a celebrity promote your cause or charity may not be of benefit in the UK. In a comprehensive analysis of the impact of celebrities om UK life, 83 per cent of respondents look at news about celebrities.

Yet, around 50 per cent of respondents indicated that they take no notice of a charity's message when a celebrity is involved.
14 per cent indicated, more extremely, that they are put off the message.
Conversely, 33 per cent indicated that they become more aware of the problem and/or charity or organisation when it is promoted by a celebrity.

In most cases, people could not identify which charities had celebrities.

I would be fascinated to see if the results are different for a more celebrity obsessed country like the USA or Australia.

The question for charities needs to be does the celebrity's involvement give us any more money? any more volunteers? If there are any costs involved (for travel etc, most celebs give their time pro bono), is the return worth it.

Canadian Volunteering and giving

From the 2010 Canada Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating (CSGVP).

In 2010, 84 per cent of the Canadian population aged 15 and over, made a financial donation to a charitable or non-profit organisation, for a total of $10.6 billion. Both the percentage of the population donating and the total amount of donations were relatively unchanged from 2007. The average annual donation in 2010 was $446 per donor, virtually unchanged from 2007. Those who gave the most were more likely to be older, to have a higher household income and a formal education, or to attend weekly religious services or meetings.

At the same time, more than 13.3 million people, or 47% of the population, volunteered nearly 2.1 billion hours in 2010 or the equivalent of nearly 1.1 million full-time jobs (assuming 40 hours per week for 48 weeks) through a group or organisation. Canadians who volunteered did so for an average of 156 hours in 2010, relatively unchanged from 2007.

Those who volunteered the most hours tended to be older, widowed and no longer in the workforce. They were also likely to not have any children at home and to attend weekly religious services or meetings.
However, the highest rates of volunteering were found among Canadians who were younger, were single, married or in a common-law relationship, or had young children at home.

The proportion of the population who made a financial donation to charitable and non-profit organizations was highest in the Atlantic provinces. However, the donors from the Western provinces donated higher average amounts. This pattern is, for the most part, unchanged from 2007.

Donor rates were the highest in Newfoundland and Labrador (92%) and in Prince Edward Island (91%). These were significantly above the national average of 84%. Rates for the Northwest Territories and Nunavut were the lowest in Canada.

Charitable donors from Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia donated about $550 on average to a charitable or non-profit organization in 2010, among the highest in the country. Average donations were lowest in Quebec.