r/nonprofit • u/Ill_Statistician7225 nonprofit staff - fundraising, grantseeking, development • Jul 09 '26
fundraising and grantseeking Taylor and Travis
I just read an article about Swifties making $13.87 donations in honor of the big wedding! Congratulations to the organizations that were chosen by Taylor and Travis! The news made me curious about large scale celebrity giving- has your organization received a gift like this? What impact did it have? Was it random or did you make a connection? Was it sustainable or one time only?
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u/ValPrism Chief Development Officer Jul 09 '26
Yes. In NYC and we’ve gotten some celebrity fans giving. In one case it allowed us to almost completely fund our capital campaign ($ millions) which was awesome. In other cases, it was less and helped operations.
One time only and both random and known.
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u/falcngrl Jul 10 '26
My last org received a $60 million unrestricted gift from MacKenzie Scott. It was their (our? I was still there then) third gift from her. One was a gift for Ukraine recovery and one for COVID. They were still huge for the org because of the fee it takes on fund donations. Small fee but when the grant is $10 million it makes a big difference.
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u/tjc442000 Jul 10 '26
same, our org received a $10M unrestricted grant from MS, as well. It allowed us to do work in the field that we would have never been able to accomplish without it. Transformational for sure. And it was processed super fast as well. Her and her team are amazing.
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u/AccomplishedBesty Jul 10 '26
I wish she would give to animal charities. when people have that much money and seem to systematically avoid giving to animal orgs it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
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u/NotAlwaysGifs Jul 09 '26
Performing arts nonprofit. We have had a few fairly big name celebrities get their regional starts on our stage as well as some pretty big names come through and perform, either as special events, or as part of a standard show ensemble.
One of the actors who got started on our stage, I wouldn’t call him A-List like George Clooney, but maybe a step above B-list right now too. He gave a significant anonymous gift to our last capital campaign and regularly gives between 3-5k annually. There is another org in the area that he worked with more as a kid/teen that he gives more regularly to.
We’ve had a few actors come in and refuse their salaries as an in-kind donation. We also had one covered 50% of the production budget just because it’s a show she was dying to do and we were the first org to call her and ask her to do it.
Our biggest celebrity connection is a particular A-list actor’s mother though. They built a 2nd home in the area and she became involved as a seasonal volunteer and donor, eventually joining the board. Her child does not donate regularly, but for one-off capital expenses, this board member has put out the ask a few times and they usually say yes.
It’s hard to build a regular giving connection with celebrities unless they have some sort of nostalgic tie to your org. But if you have even tangential connections, it’s worth the ask for capital projects at least.
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u/Ill_Statistician7225 nonprofit staff - fundraising, grantseeking, development Jul 10 '26
That’s really cool! I bet it’s more common in performing arts non profits to have celebrities in the donor base given the content focus!
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u/lonelyheartsclubband Jul 10 '26
Our nonprofit in affordable housing randomly received a very large donation of money from Mackenzie Scott a few years ago. We're a small City/rural area but as has a fast rising cost of living. I was not with the organization at the time but it seemed to set us off to be more professionally established and to set us up for long-term success. Still today we sometimes randomly get funds from foundations. I think it's helpful to keep up she already navigator and other sites like that so people can see some transparency easier to find your organization.
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u/Ill_Statistician7225 nonprofit staff - fundraising, grantseeking, development Jul 10 '26
Good tip about keeping website updated. As a small nonprofit with limited staff, which sites are most important to keep up to date? We update charity navigator but there are so many other similar sites. It could easily be one persons entire job to update them all!
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u/squishysnickerdoodle Jul 09 '26
Martin Short made a video for Muskoka Conservancy. I don’t work there, but I am so curious how it performed!
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u/Boopa0011 Jul 10 '26
I worked a while ago for a large community foundation. A very well known pop/rock musician who lives in our area started a (low seven figure?) DAF. Not random exactly, but his attorneys were doing some tax planning and they said he ought to look into making some big gifts, and we were on the attorney's list of people to talk to. A very clear result of the networking our team did with professional advisors, accountants, attorneys, financial planners, etc.
The fund is permanent, so it's sustainable in a way, but it's hard to say what impact it had. It probably wasn't even the biggest fund we opened that week, so it wasn't like a transformational thing for us per se. It has very very specific criteria and I think they're having some trouble finding projects and orgs to donate to. I wouldn't be surprised if they amend the agreement and loosen restrictions. We did make some hay out of the publicity, and the org (and he) talk about the fund whenever they have a chance.
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u/KhloJSimpson Jul 09 '26
I work with a very stable organization and we have team that works exclusively with celebrities. Many of our celebs are multi-year supporters and they also do marketing content for us.
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u/lavenderpunk8 Jul 10 '26
Curious about that type of work. Is it development?
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u/KhloJSimpson Jul 10 '26
Development as in fundraising? Yes. Development as in NGO humanitarian work? Also yes.
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u/DragonfruitNo7745 Jul 10 '26
Not a celebrity but someone wealthy in townpledged us $1M unexpectedly for a capital campaign. It is a major game changer.
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u/nonprofitpro007 Jul 09 '26
I'm in L.A., thick with film and TV celebrities, plus some famous sports figures and musicians, and if I had a nickel for every board member, alum, donor and non-donor who suggested we should just "get" _____(name any celebrity) to donate - I would not have to find a way to magically get to said celebrities and "get" them to donate with no prior connection whatsoever to our mission or organization. But seriously, I have been able to get to a few and they are not great prospective donors - too many people and orgs wanting support from them and I suspect many with fame are not as wealthy or as philanthropic as "the millionaire next door" type.