Network lines up celebs for causes
New company Chideo aims to channel fundraising efforts for charities online
LOS ANGELES — Chatting on the red carpet with Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence; recording a country song with Clint Black; working a relief mission with Patricia Arquette; being serenaded by Michael Bolton on a Caribbean island. These are just some of the wow! moments possible for everyday donors through a new online charity service that combines star power with digital marketing savvy to contribute millions to celebrity causes worldwide.
Its name is Chideo — a mashup of the words charity and video — and it’s already enlisted more than 100 VIP participants, ranging from YouTubers and sports figures to Academy Award winners like Arquette, who gave a shoutout to the effort at this year’s Oscars.
The aim is to move charitable fundraising away from direct mail pleas, teary telethons and heart-tugging commercials and into the digital age of short, entertaining videos, online fan contests and donations sent from web browsers and smartphones. In the near future, Chideo’s content will appear on newscasts of Sinclair Broadcast Group’s 162 U.S. television stations. It’s not yet clear whether the service will expand into Canada or elsewhere beyond the U.S.
Chideo is part of founder Todd Wagner’s plan to build a network not unlike the ones that have made him wealthy, except this one would be devoted to causes.
“If you can have a Military Channel and a History Channel, I don’t see any reason there can’t be a Cause Network,” said Wagner, who started his own foundation for underprivileged children in 2000, the year after he and sports and media tycoon Mark Cuban sold their start-up Broadcast.com for $5.7 billion.
An announcement Friday by the Muscular Dystrophy Association to end its long-running Labour Day telethon underscored the challenges facing traditional fundraising methods. The group said it was shifting its efforts online because its air time has been scaled back in recent years. The group said it’s in discussions with former host Jerry Lewis about ways to release some of the star-studded telethon’s archival footage online.
Wagner, 54, said he tried to engage charities years ago to become more tech-savvy, but found that while groups listened politely to his ideas, they were more concerned with getting his donation.
“I felt that I had more to give than just writing a cheque,” he said. “More than anything, (Chideo) is me saying, ‘I’m just going to build this thing. I’m going to build what I believe will help these organizations and they just need to plug into it.’ ”
Online donations remain a fraction of the money raised by charitable causes. Wagner said online giving accounts for only eight per cent of total charitable contributions, and some estimates peg it even lower.
“Every month, there’s a new amazing (technology) thing. Well, how can a (charity) possibly keep up in that world?” Wagner said in a recent interview.
Most of Chideo’s video content is free, but the site encourages donations to enter contests such as last month’s Serena premiere event where two fans met Cooper and Lawrence on the red carpet.