Thursday, May 8

Perez Hilton takes Sting to task on fundraising

Earlier this week, the popular celebrity blogger Perez Hilton reported the following news about the announced final concert ever in August by rock band the Police.

"This final concert will be a fundraiser with proceeds benefiting the production of arts programming for New York's public television stations Thirteen/WNET and WLIW New York. Tickets will be available nationally online via the Thirteen/WNET and WLIW Web sites. The band also announced that they will contribute $1 million to NYC Mayor Bloomberg's MillionTreesNYC initiative — a gift the city will match — to plant trees all over New York City."
It was interesting to hear Perez report such positive news for Sting, because the day before he did a hit job on Sting's Rainforest Foundation. The self-appointed "celebrity gangster" picked up on a NY Post article that criticized the distribution of funds after a previous fundraising concert:
"The 2006 concert - which drew Lenny Kravitz, Sheryl Crow and Will Ferrell to the landmark stage - raised $2,156,989, according to the latest available IRS tax filing.

Yet only $887,374 of the money raised, 41 percent, was divided among the charity's eight programs that support native-land claims and forest preservation in Latin America and Africa - a paltry percentage, according to agencies that monitor nonprofits."

You can read the original NY Post article here.

1 comment:

Society for Women's Health Research (SWHR) said...

Speaking of concerts with a philanthropic angle...

American Idol breakout star and Billboard chart-topper Kimberley Locke will perform a concert on Thursday, May 15, 2008, in honor of National Women's Health Week. The exclusive event is sponsored by Nature Made Liquid Softgels, a new line of liquid softgels formulated for easy absorption and easy to swallow, in support of the Society for Women's Health Research.

This special one-hour event will take place at 2 p.m. at Nokia Theatre Times Square in New York City. Nearly 2,000 fans will be invited to commemorate National Women's Health Week with Locke and show their support for women's health awareness.

There are Two (2) pairs of tickets to the event being auctioned off through Society for Women's Health Research GivingWorks eBay account:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250244064547

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250244066451

The auction ends today (Friday, May 9) at about 5:30 p.m. ET! The winner of this charity auction will receive:

-Two (2) tickets to the concert
- Access for two (2) to the VIP Reception immediately following concert
- Two (2) VIP gift bags
- Two (2) autographed pictures of Kimberly Locke