Live Web? The Internet Provides New Channels for Charity

The phenomenon of celebrities being active in charitable causes is far from being a new one. From stumping for fundraisers to recording public service announcements, many organizations and events have often realized the benefit of having a big name attached to their cause in order to boost public interest and participation. And when money is involved, the bigger the name, the bigger the returns.

The music industry has long been heavily involved in championing charitable causes. The very nature of the industry makes it easy for musicians to support a charity—all they have to do is show up and perform, the public buys the tickets, and the money goes to a good cause. One of the first huge benefit concerts in recent decades was the Concert for Bangladesh, held in Madison Square Garden in 1971. Organized by former Beatle George Harrison, the concert featured some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry at the time—Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, and Billy Preston—was a huge success in terms of raking in a lot of money, supposedly to aid refugees in Bangladesh.

But concert organizers were criticized from the very beginning, and allegations arose over missing funds. The IRS was even called in to investigate, and lawyers were hired to resolve disputes among promoters. As the frequency of charity benefit concerts grew, other problems continued to crop up in subsequent concerts. Critics wondered aloud whether the celebrities participating were doing so as much for their own egos as for the people they were purporting to be helping. In the 1980s there was Live Aid, and the music video "We Are the World" was recorded, with producer Quincy Jones warning performers before hand to "check their egos at the door."

Despite the problems, mega-celebrity charity events are still taking place, with Bob Geldof’s Live 8 concert in 2005 to urge world leaders at the G8 Summit to adopt debt forgiveness, trade concessions and $25 billion in aid for Africa, and last year’s Live Earth concerts that begun a three-year campaign to combat global climate change. The Live Earth concerts featured more than 150 musical acts in eleven locations around the world and were broadcast to a massive global audience by way of television and radio, and also through being streamed live via the Internet. But the Live Earth endeavor may have signaled a sea change in the way celebrities will be championing causes in the future, in part due to the huge backlash of criticism. Many people said that the logistics and air travel required to stage the concerts specifically pointed out the damage the concerts were supposed to be protesting. One critic called the concerts "Private Jets for Climate Change." Others said that Al Gore staged the event solely to draw attention to himself for a planned presidential campaign.

Despite the criticism leveled at Live Earth, the idea of exploiting the power of the Internet to draw attention to a charitable endeavor has begun to catch on with musicians because they can now go online rather than onstage to drum up support for their charitable work. Not only can they have more control over their endeavors by selecting their favorite charities to support, they can promote those charities through their website continuously rather than only in a single concert event. Some have even gone the route of creating their own new charities rather than relying on concert organizers to pick one for them.

Country singer Clay Walker, who has four platinum-selling albums, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1996. Shortly after receiving his diagnosis, he created a charity called Band Against MS (BAMS). He says he organized his own charity specifically so that he would have control over the finances and how the money was managed, after hearing complaints about some of the concerts that were held to benefit victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. "I was hearing these families who had lost loved ones on 9/11 say, "Where’s the money?" Walker says. "That raised a red flag."

The popular rock band 3 Doors Down also formed their own charity. The Better Life Foundation helps raise money for children and young adults with special needs. "If you donate to a charity, who knows what the charity is going to be known for," says guitarist Chris Henderson. "With the Better Life Foundation, we have 100 percent control."

Going online instead of going on-stage for charity is less expensive and simper to organize, and provides an ongoing effort rather than a one-time event. Musicians such as Madonna, John Legend, and Clay Aiken promote their favorite charities—some of which they have created themselves—through their official websites. The power of the Internet has made it possible for musicians to reach a global audience 24x7 to bring their message to the public.