Blueprint Fundraising

When we need your help we’ll let you know, ok?

I’ve been waiting for The Onion to write more on charity and philanthropy ever since this article (only for those with a truly dark sense of humour!).

Now this: Proud Cystic-Fibrosis Foundation Doesn’t Need Your Charity.

Naming rights gone wild

The current issue of The Economist has an interesting article about naming new species as a way to honour people (i.e. the spider named Calponia harrisonfordi) and as a way to fundraise for conservation causes.

GoldenPalace.com, an online casino hosted by the Kahnawake Mohawk First Nation, paid $650,0000 US to name a new species of Bolivian monkey, now known as Callicebus aureipalatii (Golden Palace monkey). The auction benefited the Wildlife Conservation Society.

This led me to look into the Golden Palace people and it turns out that they are known for pursuing some wacky naming rights, sometimes to benefit charity but mostly to generate publicity. Here’s just a sample:

• They paid $25,000 US for William Shatner’s kidney stone, with proceeds going to Habitat for Humanity
• They paid $28,000 US on eBay for a 10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich purported to bear a representation of the Virgin Mary in its toasted bread
• They paid Terri Iligan $15,000 to change her name to “goldenpalace.com”
• They also paid Edward Rouzin-Moy, a student at Eastern Illinois University, $232.50 US for a chicken breast that looked like Pope John Paul II
• In June 2005, Karolyne Smith sold the right to permanently tattoo an ad for the URL of goldenpalace.com on her forehead for $10,000 US

Update on We, the two-headed albino snake

Newsflash! Auctioning a two-headed snake on the internet is not a good fundraising strategy. There were no bidders. At all. The Aquarium is now looking at a private sale.