I have worked with celebrity supporters for more than a decade. In this time, I have seen the interest in all things celebrity grow to unprecedented levels, and have read countless articles where various authors offer their theories as to why celebrities lend their support to charities. The tone of these articles changes dramatically depending on the stance of the author and rarely incorporates the views of the celebrities themselves.
With this in mind, I conducted an in-depth study (as part of a masters in charity resource management at Sheffield Hallam Business School) to explore the personal motivations of celebrity supporters and their preferred methods of engagement. I chose this topic as I felt the data would be useful both for my own organisation and for other charities looking to engage celebrity support. I also felt it appropriate that the celebrities themselves were given the opportunity to join the debate.
I interviewed eight celebrities from the world of sport and entertainment and a further 208 celebrity volunteers completed my online survey. Participants answered a variety of questions relating to their support of particular organisations and the results were pretty much in-line with existing volunteer motivation studies. But one key difference related to the number of organisations endorsed by individuals. On average, the celebrities questioned supported six organisations each. This suggests that multiple charity endorsements are the norm for celebrity volunteers, and this presents the organisations they support with a number of issues.
Inevitably, this multiple support restricts the amount of time that celebrities are able to commit to help their chosen charities and can result in their endorsements seeming superficial rather than committed and personal. Previous academic research has shown that multiple endorsements can have a negative effect on both the endorser and the organisation as some donors believe that celebrities who support multiple causes take a short-term interest for the sake of their own careers. Further studies also suggest that when donors are aware that a celebrity is endorsing multiple organisations they often doubt the endorser's trustworthiness which is definitely not a favourable outcome, especially when the charitable sector is built on trust.
Sean Kelly is the director of events at Sparks, a charity that funds research into conditions affecting babies, children and expectant mothers
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