August 28, 2007 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Americans find the actor Jerry Lewis to be the most effective celebrity for charity causes, according to a survey by Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company.
Though older Americans came to know Jerry Lewis first as the star of “The Disorderly Orderly” and the slapstick comic to Dean Martin’s straight man, younger generations have been introduced to him through the annual telethons he plays host to for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The telethons raise tens of millions of dollars each year, to fight neuromuscular diseases though research, treatment, and educational programs.
Mr. Lewis will lead the group’s 42nd televised fund-raising drive September 2 and 3.
“I was a little surprised when I heard, but then you get to know how long he has been supporting MDA,” says Chad Jester, president of the Nationwide Foundation, which operates the company’s philanthropic programs. “Jerry Lewis was doing this over a course of time, he didn’t do it for a couple years and then move onto something else. He had a heartfelt passion and stayed with it for decades.”
The other nine spots on the survey’s list went to, in order: Oprah Winfrey, Michael J. Fox, former president Jimmy Carter, Bill Gates, Angelina Jolie, Bono of the rock group U2, Lance Armstrong, Katie Couric, and Rosie O’Donnell.
Nationwide’s survey, conducted through phone interviews with 462 American adults, also asked respondents what issues they found to be the most important.
Causes that help children and youths topped that list, followed by efforts for animals, antihunger causes, education and literacy, services for older people, religion, health and medicine, the environment, aid for disabled people, and women’s causes.
Younger people, ages 18 to 42, were more interested in international causes than older people were, the survey showed, and favored celebrities like Ms. Winfrey, Ms. Jolie, and Bono, who work in developing countries to ease poverty.
Favorites of respondents aged 43 and up included Mr. Gates, who works on international health and education issues, Mr. Carter, who supports Habitat for Humanity, and Mr. Fox, who created a nonprofit group to help find a cure for Parkinson’s disease.
The previously unannounced findings were drawn from a volunteerism survey the insurance company conducted in April. A previous report on that survey found that 42 percent of nonvolunteers said they want to donate their time, but can’t find opportunities that interest them.
