10 Top Celebrity Charitable Contributions Based on Publicity Value

A celebrity’s involvement in the nonprofit fundraising and outreach efforts of a charitable organization can prove a successful strategy for all involved. I have previously written about some of the best of these pairings when covering lists such as the 20 Celebrities Doing Good (Part 1 and 2), the 30 Top Celebrity Donations of 2011, and the Ten Most Charitable Oscar Nominees.

The celebrity can bring immediate attention to the cause and its message and help spread awareness to the general public faster than more traditional means. The media attention afforded celebrities and the ubiquitous nature of media today combine to form a powerful entity in terms of societal impact and influence. That entity has a value and FORBES’ enlisted the assistance of New York based research firm General Sentiment to help determine that value in terms of publicity contribution as part of its annual giving report.

General Sentiment used a methodology which included tracking conversational mentions from many news sources and assigning a value for the “exposure” of that source calculated “by using metrics like Google page rank, viewership (for news publications), Twitter followers, Alexa rank, and other categories.“ They then “did a correlation analysis to attribute media value generated by the celebrities for their charitable organizations and causes.” The result was the following FORBES top ten list of celebrity contributions based on publicity value.

10. Kobe Bryant, NBA Star. Total Publicity Value: $137,625,515. Cause: Kobe and Vanessa Bryant Family Foundation, which is dedicated to helping better the lives of families and children in need. Publicity Created For Cause: $204,222; Share of Total Publicity Value: 0.148%.

9. Black Eyed Peas, Musical Group. Total Publicity Value: $80,580,483. Cause: Peapod Foundation, which helps raise funds for philanthropic work in South Africa. Publicity Created For Cause: $210,676; Share of Total Publicity Value: 0.261%

8. Dr. Phil, Talk show host. Total Publicity Value: $20,191,472. Cause: Dr. Phil Foundation, helps raise funds for a number of causes including children’s heath and disaster relief. Publicity Created For Cause: $53,600; Share of Total Publicity Value: 0.265%

7. Tyler Perry, director/producer/ writer/actor. Total Publicity Value: $21,147,932. Cause: Covenant House, a shelter for homeless youth. Publicity Created For Cause: $82,542; Share of Total Publicity Value: 0.390%

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0ZvbphCR5c[/youtube]

6. Angelina Jolie writer/director/actress. Total Publicity Value: $69,376,463. Cause: Jolie-Pitt Foundation assists humanitarian efforts around the world. Publicity Created For Cause: $363,940; Share of Total Publicity Value: 0.525%

5. Elton John, composer/musician. Total Publicity Value: $65,014,296. Cause: Elton John AIDS Foundation, funds patient care as well as AIDS awareness and education. Publicity Created For Cause: $365,897; Share of Total Publicity Value: 0.563%

4. Leonardo DiCaprio, actor. Total Publicity Value: $43,101,760. Cause: Save Tigers Now, a global campaign he started in conjunction with the WWF to help save wild Tigers. Publicity Created For Cause: $263,375; Share of Total Publicity Value: 0.611%

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnZcAJEiXmA&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL379FB8B8D7E44A66[/youtube]

3. U2, musical group. Total Publicity Value: $142,661,220. Cause: ONE campaign, helps to fight the AIDS epidemic and extreme poverty. Publicity Created For Cause: $1,021,768; Share of Total Publicity Value: 0.716%

2. Paul McCartney, composer/ musician. Total Publicity Value: $76,746,839. Cause: PETA Animal rights campaign. Publicity created For Cause: $1,065,013; Share of Total Publicity Value: 1.388%

1. Jon Bon Jovi, composer/ musician /actor. Total Publicity Value: $21,841,448. Cause: Soul Kitchen “community restaurant with no prices on the menu; customers donate to pay for their meal. If you are unable to donate you may do volunteer work in exchange for your family’s meal.” Publicity created For Cause: $449,932; Share of Total Publicity Value: 2.060%

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/38237792[/vimeo]

“Stars like The Oprah Winfrey Show, Bieber and Lady Gaga (who finished in the middle of the pack for her work with VIVA Glam, a M.A.C Cosmetics lipstick line whose full sale price goes toward fighting HIV/AIDS) also have astronomically higher personal publicity values than some of the other stars on this list. This makes directing a proportionate amount of their fame to charitable causes harder than it is for less-celebrated peers.” Hopefully we’ll see them make the top ten next year as they all invest considerable time to their causes.

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