logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

How Time and a Hamburger Can Make a World of Difference for Your Cause

Jim Schaffer
March 21, 2017
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
“Hamburger” by Jeffrey Bary

March 17, 2017; International Business Times

Most everyone envies the number ($3.5 million), but even close readers of nonprofit news have a difficult time naming the charity that benefits from the world’s most famous annual charity auction experience: lunch with Warren Buffett.

Just 30 minutes with Tim Cook in his office at Apple raised $610,000 at Charity Buzz for the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights. Spending the day with Bill Clinton brought $255,000. The list goes on.

Last Wednesday, Asma Al Fahim, the founder of Dubai lifestyle magazine Villa 88, gave the winning bid of $10,000 for a glorious hamburger made by chef Russell Impiazzi and Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Thani, a member of Qatar’s royal family. Impiazzi is the culinary director at Le Gourmet in the Dubai Mall’s Galeries Lafayette, where the charity auction called “Pink Bite” took place. The auction for United Arab Emirates–based nonprofit Pink Caravan raised nearly $30,000.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Whatever your cause or primary means of revenue may be, charity auctions provide unrestricted funds with no onerous reports required six months later by the highest bidder. All business, political, entertainment, and sports celebrities and luminaries spend their days doing what they do. Working with an industry leader like Charity Buzz, you need only win a sliver of their time and Charity Buzz will offer that experience to its more than 200,000 global subscribers for a modest percentage of the final bid. Charity Buzz has raised more than $200 million for more than 3,200 nonprofits.

Research shows that auctioning experiences is especially effective for appealing to millennials.

More than three in four millennials (78 percent) would choose to spend money on an experience or event over buying something desirable (Harris study). Millennials want to spend their money being with others. Sixty-nine percent of respondents said they believe attending live experiences helps them connect better with their friends, their community and people around the world. Eighty-three percent of respondents said they participated in a “live event” in the past year and 72 percent said they’d like to improve their expenditures on experiences in the coming year.

If, like Pink Caravan, you can fill a room with donors who have the capacity and willingness to spend $10,000 for a “Burgerstack,” by all means, carry on. But if you only have access to a priceless experience, there are ways to offer that opportunity to a world of bidders. Fundraising is almost always about relationships. Sometimes, just 30 minutes of a luminary’s day can make all the difference for your cause.—James Schaffer

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jim Schaffer

The founders of Covenant House, AmeriCares, TechnoServe and the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp were my mentors who entrusted me with much. What I can offer the readers of NPQ is carried out in gratitude to them and to the many causes I’ve had the privilege to serve through the years.

More about: wealthy donorsCelebrity CharitiesFundraisingNonprofit News

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

NPQ_Winter_2022Subscribe Today
You might also like
AOC’s “Tax the Rich” Dress Dazzles Met Gala, while Police Arrest BLM Protesters Outside
Anastasia Reesa Tomkin
Lightning in a Bottle
Jeanne Bell
Sometimes a Lender or a Borrower Be: The Dos and Don’ts of PRIs
Peter Goldberg and John MacIntosh
Funding the Impossible Dream: The Movement for Japanese American Redress
Rona Fernandez and Stan Yogi
Asking the Right Person for the Right Amount
Kim Klein
Democracy Organizations Call for Making Coup Donors Accountable
Sofia Jarrin

Popular Webinars

Remaking the Economy

Black Food Sovereignty, Community Stories

Register Now

Combating Disinformation and Misinformation in 21st-Century Social Movements

Register Now

Remaking the Economy

Closing the Racial Wealth Gap

Register Now
You might also like
AOC’s “Tax the Rich” Dress Dazzles Met Gala, while...
Anastasia Reesa Tomkin
Foundation Giving Numbers for 2020 Show 15 Percent Increase
Steve Dubb
Strike MoMA Imagines Art Museums without Billionaires
Tessa Crisman

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.