Party With A Purpose? Or just FAIL?

A few months ago, I heard of this event called "Party With A Purpose". According to the organizers of the event:

We’re 20- and 30-somethings, and we like to have a good time. The only thing better than having a good time is making a positive impact at the same time. So we’re throwing a Party with a Purpose that will be equal parts glam cocktail bash and global health awareness raiser.

At first, I thought that's pretty cool. Then people started tweeting about what a great turnout, what was going on and then all the money they "raised". The consistent number was $13,225. I'm assuming that's the figure they announced at the event so attendees could tweet it.

But the thing that bothers me is that the party cost $21,000 to put on. It was underwritten by sponsors. Maybe I'm crazy, but it seems to me that the event was -($7,775). People who attended, got $21,000 worth of party and in return they gave you $13,225 for the cause.

To be fair, the event organizer said it was an "awareness" event first and foremost. The money "raised" was to show people what a little bit could do to raise funds (attendees paid $25 per ticket). But this really seems disingenuous in a big way. No, a little bit was not what it took to raise the money. It took almost double the amount.

Here's the email response I got from the organizers:

Hello,

I was updating the Party with a Purpose blog today and saw your post regarding the $21,000 the party raised for underwriting the cost of the event versus the $13,225 raised for the Rotavirus treatment program in Kenya. My apologies for being late to respond, but I wanted to give you an explanation. In order to get an upscale cocktail party for 500 people completely underwritten so all net income from ticket sales would go to benefit Rotavirus treatment, we had to raise $21,000 from corporate partners. The event was an awareness-raiser, first-and-foremost, but we wanted party attendees to know that by giving a little ($25 per person was our ticket cost), collectively the benefit could be significant. Because of our contribution the Ministry of Health in Kenya will be able to reach their national health policy goal of installing an Oral Rehydration Therapy Corner in every clinic throughout their country.

Were you able to attend the party? I would like to hear your feedback.

Thanks!

Prior to this email, in a Twitter exchange it was claimed that a total of $34,000 was raised. I don't think it's semantics, but an outright misrepresentation of the facts. To include the money spent on the event as "raised" is extremely misleading when only $13,225 actually went to the program in Africa.

The organizers tweeted that "we raised $13,225!" and the attending tweeters retweeted it over and over. The event was a huge success! Young people rock! Seattle rocks! And so forth. Has our society come to this? Where in order to get young people to participate in doing good, you have to put on a $21,000 party just to make them feel good? I'm sure the cause would've been just as happy getting the $21,000 instead of $13,225. I know it costs money to raise money, but not if you're in the red doing it. How about some transparency here?

Here's what I think they should've done:

1. Actually use Social Media to expand the "awareness" and funds raised. If it was truly an awareness campaign, why not setup tools and ideas on how the attendees could get the word out about the cause so more funds could be raised? Having a page setup on the site that accepted online donations would've been a great call to action for attendees to tweet and post on their Facebook pages or blogs. That would have truly utilized the power of social media.
   
   
2. Spend less on partying. It would be a sad statement about 20- and 30-somethings and Seattle if you can't raise awareness or funds for a worthy cause without a ritzy $21,000 cocktail party. I've seen tens of thousands raised through simple spaghetti fundraisers where the food costs nothing or a few dollars to make and people pay double or triple because it's for a great cause.
   
   
3. Setup a long-term program to track the awareness and fundraising post event. Even if the event netted less than the original amount spent, maybe over the course of a year, the money raised could have been doubled. Available analytics could easily track shared links, "likes" and members of a Facebook page.

Maybe I'm the only one that sees the irony in having a good time at an "upscale" $21,000 cocktail party so you can send $13,225 to help people in Africa, but maybe this is philanthropy in Seattle. That's $42 worth of "party" for a $25 "donation". Go figure.