When Harrison Ford had the star power to raise $160,000 for an organization he liked and supported, he took advantage of something very few people can do. That’s the power of celebrity - only a handful of people in the world can step into a room and auction off their personal time for anything approaching that kind of number. Maybe Elon Musk, Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos, the Dali Lama, and perhaps a few former presidents could pull it off. It’s a short list.
Like most celebrities (and people), Ford has personal favorite groups and causes that align with his passions. He is unlikely to accept an invitation from any organization with which he doesn’t already have a direct connection. I believe that every mega-star has at least one favorite charity, and lucky you if it happens to be yours.
If those stars don’t organically align, the other option organizations have is to pay a celebrity to attend, either as an honoree or entertainer. If you have a big enough budget, you might be able to justify the cost, but the rule of thumb is that a celebrity (or celebrity entertainment) should not cost more than 10% of what you expect to raise.
For example, if your event annually raises $150,000, you could justify spending up to $15,000 for celebrity entertainment. What can you realistically hope to gain? Your hope would be that you will get a 2x return on your investment. That doesn’t mean that you will get a 2x return, but only that it’s a reasonable expectation. Some celebrities will want so much money to appear that very few organizations could ever justify the cost. A half-million dollars or more is not usually an amount that most organizations are willing to pay for entertainment or an appearance. And the A-list celebrities you might want to have at your benefit mostly can’t be bought anyway. I seriously doubt that Harrison Ford would ever show up for a paycheck at an event he didn’t personally support.
Here are a few things to keep in mind if you are considering burnishing the image of your event with celebrity star power:
- No big-name celebrity will attend an obscure non-profit event unless they have a very direct interest in your cause. Bob Saget was passionate about the disease scleroderma because his sister died from it. According to the Chairman of the Scleroderma Research Foundation, supporting the cause was “...his life’s work.” If your non-profit raised money for scleroderma research, Saget would probably have gone out of his way to help.
- Celebrities can sometimes show up to give a 10-minute keynote speech and leave right after. You might then be justifiably upset that your celebrity didn’t stick around long enough to meet people and sign autographs. As with all things contractual, it’s best to clearly write out expectations. If you want an autograph session, make sure it is noted in your contract. You should always assume that a celebrity will do the minimum and be pleasantly surprised if they decide to do more. That way, you won’t be disappointed.
- If you’re not paying a celebrity to attend, but one shows up, you should consider yourself lucky even if the celebrity never opens their mouth or bids on an item. I can’t count the number of times I have heard a Director of Development say right after an event, “Mr./Ms. Celebrity didn’t even raise a paddle.” To which I respond, “You just got a big-time celebrity to validate your organization. You received an enormous gift, far greater than any dollar donation. Be grateful.”
- If you’re nice to a celebrity and they like your cause, they may decide to go over and above to help. One of the benefit auctions I ran a number of years ago featured Snoop Dogg, who received an award and gave a speech. They asked him afterward if he would kindly allow attendees to take their pictures with him, and he did so for more than an hour. He could have easily walked out the door and said, “Sorry, I don’t have time.” He probably took 200 photos at $50 per photo - or about $10,000 - all of which went to a charitable organization.
- Lock down the details. Celebrity auction items are seldom listed in the auction catalog. My sense is that celebrities live lives always on the go. They might be in Argentina working on a film next month when they promised to play a round of golf with one lucky high bidder. When I auction their time/services, I make it a point to ask celebrities if they have blocked out certain dates and to give me as much detail as possible. It is surprising how many times I’ve seen celebrities offer few specifics about the time and place of an “auction date.” They often have managers who handle the details, and they may not even know where they will be on a specified day and time.
- Expect a crowd. Celebrities are not like you and me. They travel in a squad, security detail, or just a bunch of people who are highly suspicious and menacing-looking. People want to get close to celebrities, and celebrities often put up barriers to limit their exposure. It can be overwhelming to run up against a celebrity machine, and some organizations aren’t prepared for it.
- If you do hire a celebrity, you should always ask who else they’ll be bringing along. It’s usually not just the one meal for the celebrity; it’s the ten meals for the celebrity entourage. And where, by the way, do you put all those people? For all the advantages they bring, celebrities will create quite a few headaches, most of which you will never have encountered before.
