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CONTRIBUTE BLOGS
04/02/2009 18:22
by Marcia Stepanek
When in Britain last week at
the Skoll World Forum, I was
referred to a recent article
in The Observer written by
Joss Garman, the 24-year-...
03/02/2009 22:35
by Marcia Stepanek
As the recent copyright woes
of Obama poster artist Shepard
Fairey show, there's a war
raging over what some now are
calling a new art form in ...
02/16/2009 07:24
by Marcia Stepanek
I just finished reading an
advance copy of "The Blue
Sweater: Bridging the Gap
Between Rich and Poor in an
Interconnected World,&qu...
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Perspectives
THE SCENE
As rivalry for new donor dollars escalates,
so does the weight of the
gesture
Mike Witte
IN THE LAST CENTURY, A THANK YOU NOTE FROM THE GRATEFUL CHAIR OF A deserving cause was considered perfect etiquette and quite enough. "It still is,"
maintains (insists) Charlotte Ford, virtually to the fundraising circuit born. Nowhere
in her book, 21st Century Etiquette: Charlotte Fords Guide to Modern Manners
for the Modern Age, does she advise offering freebie pens, perfumes, spa
treatment certificates, trip discounts to the Continent, cross-country bicycles
or other product placements and samples, large, XXL or small. (Big-ticket
holders for Juilliard's 100th anniversary benefit in April bagged $180 Montblanc
pens.)
It's a rather weird paradox that the people who are donating to the needy
on one hand are furtively looking for a goody bag on the other, says actor
Cliff Robertson. A sign, perhaps, of our times? Robertson may be on to something.
With all the new money coming onto the philanthropy circuit these days, there is
definitely jostling for who gives the bestright on down to the swag. Says
socialite Yaz Hernandez, who is co-chairing the El Museo del Barrio Gala on May
17: "You want your benefit to be the best, so you play 'top that.' A pattern has
been established. It's no longer a 'thank you,' it's part of the event." Of course,
the psychology behind the offering of merchandise as gratitude for dollars
spent is an idea as old as the hills, one of those for-profit ideas that has become
de rigueur both on Madison Avenue and the benefit circuit. But are mega-pound
goodie bags like those given out at Denise Rich's Angel Ball last year — or those
of lesser weight — entirely appropriate, especially if given in thanks for funds
to the needy?
Don't ask David Hessekiel, president of the Cause Marketing Forum.
He says the expansion of the goody bag is inevitable in today's increasingly
brand-conscious marketplace. If a corporation can provide a little swag at
the same time it's writing a check to fund the latest homeless shelter, he says,
then why not? Its good PRand big business, too.
Webster Hall Curator Baird
Jones says he thinks the invasion of the gold-plated goody bag began a decade
ago with the birth of cause marketing. At the Yves Saint Laurent benefit at
the Statue of Liberty, they let guests take as many bottles of perfume as
they wanted. Only 15 of them fit in the goody bags. Bold-faced names in tuxes
looked like Michelin men, their pockets were so jammed. "I took 50," he clucked.
And
its not just the bag thats expanding. Its also the definition of the gift. Call
it experience swag — more now about the
trip and the treatment than the trinket, especially for the A-list crowd. Indeed,
"the higher the roller you are, the more you get," asserts New York society therapist Abigail Brenner.
But
woe to the benefit planner who tries to cut off the supply. Maria Vorobieva,
the development director for the annual Russian Childrens Welfare Society event
says, "We are fortunate not to witness those who come to the Waldorf just for our
goody bags, but [the bags] are a 'must have' at an event, a sort of full-stop at
the end of the sentence." Just don't
expect to see Broadway Producer David Brown stopping dead in his tracks for the
take. Brown never, ever accepts goody bags. Says Brown: "Who wants to schlep
them all over town?"
Marcy MacDonald has worked in New York and Europe with such publications as Hamptons magazine, British Vogue, Hello!, and Boulveard magazine in Paris.
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