February 10, 2000 | Read Time: 1 minute
The more than 200 charity balls held in Palm Beach, Fla., generate some $35-million a year in ticket sales, according to Forbes magazine (February 7).
But as the number of fund-raising events keeps increasing, non-profit groups must constantly search for ways to make their events popular, the magazine says.
Since most of the balls are held from November to March, the competition can be fierce. As a result, organizers say they must offer ever-more elaborate decorations and entertainment — from having performers dressed as mice lead a chariot through a ballroom for one “Cinderella” event that raised money for a children’s hospital, to building a replica of the Sydney Opera House for a fund-raising event that benefited the Equestrian AIDS Foundation and the United States Equestrian Team.
On occasion, however, organizers have been known to go too far.
At one Young Friends of the American Red Cross event using a James Bond Goldfinger movie theme, “a nude woman painted in gold from head to toe lounged in a bathtub while handing out golden vibrators,” Forbes reports. The next day, the magazine reports, Elizabeth Dole, then president of the organization, called organizers to say she was not amused.
The article is available online at http://www.forbes.com.
