Charity-Celebrity Partnerships Offer Benefits for for Causes and Stars

The American Paralysis Association proceeded carefully when it first approached Christopher Reeve shortly after the actor was injured in a horseback-riding accident three years ago.

Henry G. Stifel, who was then chairman of the organization, sent a note and a packet of information about spinal-cord injuries and the group’s search for a cure to Mr. Reeve, who was paralyzed after being thrown from his horse in a riding competition.

“You don’t rush out after people,” says Mitchell R. Stoller, president of the American Paralysis Association. “This is a dramatic change in a person’s life. My feeling was that in this particular case we weren’t going to do anything else unless somebody reached out to us.”

Mr. Reeve did reach out several months later, when he was at a rehabilitation center in New Jersey, not far from the charity’s Springfield headquarters.

He invited Mr. Stoller to visit to talk about the group’s mission to find a cure for spinal-cord injuries.

Impressed by the charity’s focus on financing research, and by promising medical breakthroughs suggesting that the spinal cord can be repaired, Mr. Reeve began to get more involved. By the end of 1996, he was elected chairman of the Board of Directors.

Both the charity’s initial contact with Mr. Reeve, and its decision to make him chairman of the board, were sound moves, says Abbey Meyers, president of the National Organization for Rare Disorders, a federation of non-profit groups that raise money for and increase awareness of rare illnesses.

“When something like this happens,” she says, “it’s to the group’s advantage to get that person as fast as you can, and even smarter to make him chairman of the board because his involvement moves to a deeper level.”

Indeed, in the three years since Mr. Reeve’s accident, the Paralysis Association has seen its revenues double to $5-million. The group, once known primarily in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area, has attained national recognition, thanks to Mr. Reeve.

But Mr. Reeve’s decision to associate himself with the American Paralysis Association was also a smart move on his part, Ms. Meyers adds, as was his decision to make his own charity, the Christopher Reeve Foundation, primarily a fund-raising arm of the paralysis association.

“These health organizations are truly the experts,” she says. “They are the ones that really know which is a good grant proposal and which isn’t.”

Adds Rita Tateel, president of Celebrity Source, a Los Angeles company that matches stars with charitable causes: “Just because somebody is famous doesn’t mean they know how to run a non-profit organization.”

But when it comes to raising money and awareness, celebrities can wield a lot of power, experts say.

“I’ve been down in Congress at hearings and the whole world comes to a stop because a movie star comes in,” says Ms. Meyers. “You can be there pouring your heart out at one of these hearings, and you may be talking to an audience of one. But when a celebrity testifies, you can bet there’s a full house.”

There can be a downside to relying too much on celebrities for support, however, says Ms. Tateel. For example, what if Mr. Reeve and the paralysis association were to have a major disagreement? “What’s to stop him from leaving his support behind and starting his own organization where he has more control?” Ms. Tateel asks.

Megan Sandow, director of development at the American Paralysis Association, says that that scenario is unlikely because, as chairman of the board, Mr. Reeve is involved in the group’s decision making and also because his own goal of one day walking again is closely tied to the charity’s mission of finding a cure for spinal-cord injury.

Still, she says, the charity makes sure it maintains good relationships with those donors who had made contributions before Mr. Reeve got involved, and it continues to look for new sources of support.

Another danger, Ms. Tateel says, occurs when a charity teams up with a celebrity whose star begins to fall.

The American Paralysis Association shouldn’t have to worry about this problem, says Ms.Tateel.

“When you have someone like Christopher Reeve, who has become an icon in the public’s mind and eye because of his incredible courage and graciousness, plus has gotten all of his very famous friends to rally around him in support, that risk really is not a concern here.”