Fundraising ideas and proven fundraisers FREE for nonprofits

Raising Funds By

Dining With Celebrities

The Auction Concept

Wouldn't it be exciting to be able to sit down over lunch or supper with someone you've always admired...a celebrity perhaps, or a prominent figure in your community?

People would pay your organization to allow them access to a celebrity figure for just an hour or two. The celebrity could be a sports star, singer, politician, entertainer, journalist, or business leader or key community figure.

The Agreements

You must lay out the terms of the program to your volunteer celebrities that wish to support your efforts and the eventual auctioning guest that will lend support for this special occasion. That clears the way to keep any misunderstandings from occurring later.

Start by designing two agreements. One for the celebrity to know about the program, agree to its terms and then to sign it. Include the timeframe and what you expect of them. Ideally, the celebrity will be the one buying the lunch, dinner or supper as they say in the south.

The second agreement would be toward the guest that buys the auction dinner. Make sure that they understand there will be no compromising activities (photographers, inappropriate behavior, etc.) or provocation. Allow for an additional guest like a spouse, sibling or business partner to participate making this all the more of a pleasurable experience.

Secure Your Committee

This is the most crucial part of this unique fundraiser. You must, must, must recruit the most prominent individuals that you possibly can to secure potential celebrities. These committee members should possess the savvy and personality to be able to pick up the phone and get through to the celebrity and secure their commitment to be auctioned. Your Chairperson must be a well known name to those you plan on auctioning.

The Process

Develop a list of individuals that will be worthy of attracting attention from potential contributors. You will want 3 - 4 times the names that you plan on ending up with.

Divide the list among your committee members for later calling and securing an invitation.

Send a letter from your prominent chairperson to your potential auctioned celebrities explaining the program and what you are raising money for. This should be a compelling case since many celebrities have very little time to throw away. Mention that one of your committee members will be calling them within a set timetable.

Follow up with a phone call to each potential auctioned celebrity. Secure their involvement and send them an agreement to sign. Ask for a "head and shoulders" picture of them.

Post all names and pictures online and promote the website link or print in a public document and disseminate.

Some Specifics To Consider

You should be as flexible and as firm as you can be. What this means is to have a solid plan and organization in place, but allow the two parties to choose the dinner meeting that is right for them.

You will want to really promote this program among the circle of friends of the celebrities that you wish to choose. If a particular celebrity turns you down, make sure that you get their permission to place them on your auction promotion newsletter list. They just might want to buy a celebrity lunch themselves.

The key to your success is to promote the program heavily among the media and through direct mail to lists of moderate income to wealthy individuals in your region. Use mailing list services like Edith Roman Associates or InfoUSA to secure your names.

What You Can Expect

The Communities In Schools nonprofit organization, uses eBay's online auction capabilities for national exposure of their Lunch With A Leader fundraiser. See the article showing Mrs. Laura Bush as their national Honorary Chair.

With 170 celebrities auctioned off, they raised $157, 376.70. Some of the celebrities auctioned pulled in from $400 to over $11,000. Faith Hill pulled in the highest auction at $14,100.00.

Your local group stands to make just as much of a success as this national organization did since you also have access to eBay and other online auction sites. You could literally raise tens of thousands of dollars for your group.

Start today and get going...going...gone with your own celebrity dinner auction.