Help with raising money for charity

cah1234

Hello,

I am looking to raise money for a childrens charity.

One idea i have is to contact celebrities through Twitter and ask if they would kindly donate anything. I would the auction these donations (probably via Ebay) and then transfer all money to a just giving page.

My questions:

1: Am i allowed to ask celebrities for items? Is there any law preventing you from doing this?

2: Am i then allowed to sell the items through Ebay? As ebay charge a listing price, could i deduct that to cover my costs and then transfer the rest to the just giving page?

Many Thanks

OpDawn2

Hi there cah1234

of course you can ask celebrities! You might have problems getting past the personal assistants but aside from that many celeb's like to help out. Especially if it gives them a public profile, so talk up any promoting you'll be doing.

2 - There are always costs incurred by charities. your eBay fees will be the least of the worries. Print you eBay invoices and file them tidily and no harm will come of that.

Any way you can project your legitimacy to the celebs will help too!!!

Good luck!

mountainofdebt

Being abit of a devil's advocate here but if I was a celeb how would I know you were going to actually give the proceeds to charity?

also if you're selling through ebay why don't donate the proceeds automatically - don't ebay offer reduced fees then ??

oldtoolie

If your charity is registered with eBay for Charity, you can sell using that facility and automatically passing funds to the charity.

Have you spoken to the charity? No doubt they have their own plans for fundraising. Those plans may or may not include other people approaching celebrities and fundraising in their name.

PasturesNew

You should be working through and with the children's charity - give them your ideas and plans and ask how they can help you promote it, get behind you, etc.

It'd be more than foolish to wake up and randomly decide to raise money for a charity as that can lead you into all sorts of problems.