As famous actors and sports figures increasingly court attention for their involvement in philanthropy, a niche industry of celebrity philanthropy advisers has blossomed. The New Yorker (March 26) has taken a look at one of the most aggressive ones, Trevor Neilson, a former Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation staff member and the founder of the Global Philanthropy Group.
Mr. Neilson, who has been credited with bringing the rock star Bono and Bill Gates together to get attention for global development issues, characterizes anonymous giving by celebrities as outmoded.
“The new philanthropy should be sexy and fun, and you should be acknowledged for it,” says Mr. Neilson.
Yet some celebrities might wish he would embrace discretion a bit more. The magazine suggests that Mr. Neilson lost the actors Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt as clients when he was seen as speaking too much on Ms. Jolie’s behalf about her humanitarian work.
“Trevor’s danger is that he makes himself bigger than his clients,” a colleague of Mr. Neilson says in the article.
The article also examines the problems faced by nonprofits that work with celebrities. Ken Berger, the head of Charity Navigator, calls it “the cluelessness factor,” when celebrities don’t quite understand the weight of their role as a nonprofit’s spokesman or shirk their duties to the group when they can no longer fulfill the time commitment.
Another nonprofit leader quoted in the article tells of celebrities who “expect to be treated like royalty” and bring their entourages along with them to charity events.
“It was killing us,” says the unnamed charity official. “People are showing up with six to eight people expecting free drinks, getting irate if they don’t have everything heaped on them and walk away with parting gifts.”
But Mr. Neilson argues that a celebrity’s ability to attract publicity and money for a cause far outweighs the occasional problems charities might face in working with the difficult ones. Says the philanthropy adviser: “If you give me the option between a billionaire who’s only able to write checks and somebody who can mobilize hundreds of millions of people, I’ll take the hundreds of millions of people.”
