Fundraising Event - Celebrity Autographs

willbennett123

Hi all,
I have recently started to do some fundraising for a small non-profit I volunteer for & I would like to contact celebrities for autographs...
How should I do this? Should I contact them via email or send a letter?
Thanks in advance

thepurplepixie

Have done it, raised about £3,000.  Wrote a nice letter asking if they would donate an autograph and explaining the cause, included a stamped addressed envelope (which most of them sent back but it seemed less cheeky as minimum effort and no cost for them.)  Had lots of things donated e.g. autographed photos, books, CDs, footballs, football shirts.  Was great fun.

thepurplepixie

Forgot to say good luck.  The BBC were great and sent lots of autographs, some sports teams were lovely others made the effort to write back and say they only supported certain charities, quite funny as would have been easier to grab a passing player and get them to sign a piece of paper and pop it in the envelope.

willbennett123

Thank you ThePurplePixie,
Did you write to actors individually or the whole cast (e.g. Holby City)? Also, did you send out your request as a large letter?

thepurplepixie

Hi, we varied it to be honest, so we wrote to say Casualty and Blue Peter and got lots back but sometimes would write to a specific person like Terry Wogan (sorry few years ago) with sports teams we generally wrote to the club.  Politicians autographs also sell well so worth trying them.   It gets really interesting checking your post when they start to come back.  We did a standard sort of letter, outlining who we were, what we were collecting for and what we would do with the money.  I think we started with a float of about £10 for stamps, mostly they just included our envelope and stamp back and we could use it again.  I just felt it seemed polite and not asking them for money or "things" and just made it easy if they did want to just sign a piece of paper and put it in the envelope.  Made it easy for them.  Not everyone replied but lots did.  I did it as a project with my kids and it was a great way to raise money.   Good luck.