By Stuart Greenbaum

The trend to use celebrities for causes can be traced to World War II when movie stars were asked to promote war bonds. Nonprofit agencies also found that celebrities could make their causes appealing to the masses; Shirley Temple was an early spokeswoman for the American Red Cross. Because nonprofit institutions and celebrities thrive on public acceptance and exposure, a mutually beneficial synergy was established.
    

For example, before Jimmy Carter became involved, Habitat for Humanity International, which builds homes throughout the world for poverty-stricken families, was supported nearly exclusively by religious organizations. After Carter became a spokesman for the group, thousands of volunteers -- including many celebrities -- became interested in the cause and have helped build homes throughout the world. The nonprofit agency has grown to become the largest homebuilder in the United States.

Why do nonprofits try to entice celebrities into speaking for their causes? It's a basic public relations strategy: endorsement by a public figure not only will draw attention to the cause, but will help to independently validate it. This, in turn, will help open doors to public support and media exposure. William Shatner summed it up in a USA Today article on celebrities and charities: “When a celebrity talks about it, the media reports it.”

At Cause Celeb Communications, we've identified criteria to help celebrities create synergistic links with charitable causes. Specifically: how can a celebrity pick and choose an appropriate cause from the many offers, and leverage his or her time to do the most good? We begin by determining that any group under consideration by a celebrity genuinely represents the public interest. Through our clearinghouse, research is done on the group's administrative, policy and program history; funding sources; supporters (and detractors); and previous campaign experience. We also establish that the group has the resources to produce a professional campaign.

The hard work involved in creating cause-celebrity alliances is undoubtedly worth it. When it comes together, the relationship can create exciting challenges as well as dynamic and powerful results for all involved. For example, the California Department of Conservation's addition of actor Steven Seagal as host of its 1995 Earth Day fair helped bump up attendance to 25,000 people, quadrupling that of the preceding year. Crowd control at the event was a welcome challenge for the Conservation Department, one that fortunately was not as difficult to overcome as working around the schedule of NBA and Olympic Dream Team all-star Mitch Richmond to produce a series of PSAs on recycling. The end, however, justifies the means: the recently completed television spots continue to enjoy regular free placements on stations throughout the state. In fact, Richmond's humorous 60-second game of "one-on-one" with life-size “spokesdinosaur” Recycle Rex still garners the equivalent of more than $200,000 per month worth of TV air-time.

Lucky for charities, there is no business like show business.