Fundraiser Events: Bringing in Laughter and Donations
Good fundraiser entertainment can be the key to raising money. According to research from GoFundMe, in-person events can really help push people to give, especially in the long run. According to their report, 91% of fundraising event attendees were reportedly more likely to take further action with a nonprofit after a “successful event experience.” Moreover, as their report says, performances are the second most preferred event for in-person attendees. Another thing, according to a 2022 Giving Experience Study, “social donors” are more likely to want to participate in an in-person event the following year.
However, fundraiser entertainment is often given little thought. That is, an emcee is usually enlisted from the pool of people already involved in the fundraising efforts. And this person is rarely an entertainment professional.
That’s why hiring a professional entertainer, say a comedian, can really goose the donations. This is also one of the primary advantages over raising money on one of the various fundraising platforms, like GoFundMe. While this is an easy way to raise money, it’s not in person, and it’s certainly not entertaining or engaging.
When we’re being entertained, it’s easier to lay down some cash because when we’re happy, we tend to be more generous—which creates a positive feedback loop, as being generous can also make us happier.
It would then seem like a no-brainer to hire a stand-up comedian for your fundraiser entertainment: it’s an experience that lends itself to an in-person event, which gives it legs for the next year; it’s a performance; and oh yeah, just as being generous can bring us happiness, laughing does a pretty good job at making us happy too.
Read on to discover why hiring a comedian for your next charity fundraiser is the winning ticket you’ve been looking for.
Creating Value: What Sets Comedy Apart for Fundraiser Entertainment
Using stand-up comedians for fundraiser entertainment has long enjoyed a lucrative history. We can look at “Red Nose Days,” an event that blends humor with a message—i.e., raising funds for various children’s causes—which has raised over a billion dollars since it began in 1988. This event is actually one day of the comedy charity fundraiser campaign “Comic Relief,” which supports a broad range of causes in the U.K. and internationally.
As Jo Cutler, a PhD candidate in psychology, outlines for The Conversation, events like Red Nose Day help stimulate giving for many reasons. There is social proof, that is, we look to others for how to act in a given situation. Especially if the behavior is seen as morally correct and the action (donating) would be looked on with approval, which Cutler describes as an “injunctive norm.”
Furthermore, when it’s celebrities we see advocating for something (donating money), we are more likely to follow suit, as celebrities are often seen as trustworthy and valuable.
And when the donating is done publicly, say on television? Even better. Cutler says the cheering from a live audience can invoke friendly competition for donors to give more.
To return to the influence of celebrities, we can look at one of Canada’s finest exports, Seth Rogen.
In 2011, Rogen started “Hilarity for Charity,” which raises funds for Alzheimer’s (including research, awareness, and support for families who are grappling with the disease). So far, the charity has raised nearly a million dollars, but that’s an inexact figure because Rogen didn’t stop at his initial charity fundraiser.
To wit, Rogen also helped found Hilarity for Charity U (HFC U), which encouraged college students to throw their own comedy fundraiser. This spinoff has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars without the aid of celebrities.
Of course, Rogen is not the only famous comedian who has used his name brand recognition to help elicit funds for a good cause. In 2019, Nick Kroll, one of Rogen’s contemporaries, helped found “Comedy vs Cancer” with several cancer survivors. To date, the charity has raised millions of dollars for blood cancer research.
However, there are many more comedians who have either founded, acted as spokespersons, asked their followers to donate, or hosted an event. These faces (or at least names) have used their clout to raise money for a multitude of causes—from Tyler Perry to Will Ferrell, Robert Smigel, Tina Fey, Denis Leary, and Stephen Colbert, there is no shortage of comedians contributing to fundraising efforts.
So clearly, while using a celebrity can help give your charity fundraiser legs through various psychological mechanisms, by no means does your fundraiser entertainment demand a famous face to garner support.
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The Community Connection
Earlier, we mentioned how comedy can bring together a local community. Now, let’s explore this in a bit more detail. As far as fundraising ideas go, comedy is exceptionally well-situated—like a Model 1 car that fits snugly around the driver’s body. Comedy can be that seat because humor helps us bear difficult—often taboo—subjects by disarming our defenses. Suicide, for example, is one of the greatest taboos.
So maybe it's no great surprise we have charity fundraisers for suicide prevention, as well as programs that use comedy as literally a life-saving tool. For example, the organization 1 Degree of Separation “combines comedy with life-saving education.” And taking a look at some of the testimonials, we can see how impactful their program is.
“I enjoyed the show. It was great to be able to laugh at something so stigmatized. I suffer from depression and anxiety. I also have attempted suicide. And have been hospitalized numerous times. I'm glad these comedians are sending a good message on such a hard topic.”
“This is a tough subject to discuss but needs to be brought out in the open. I admire the presenters for being able to share their personal experiences with honesty and humor. The questions they presented are very helpful. I will use them personally and with others. Having humor in such a sensitive topic was wonderful.”
“I was worried about how they would make such a serious topic into a comedy skit, but I was very impressed and appreciated them for being open about depression and suicide. As someone who is working on this as well I felt seen and understood.”
There’s even research that suggests humor (notably “witty” humor) can help people mitigate suicidal ideation. But humor, especially in the context of fundraiser entertainment, can be about much more than just suicide prevention.
We return again to the idea of community. Humor can strengthen social bonds in a community because when we share a laugh, we’re implicitly communicating we have shared values. And (as yet more research suggests), humor helps us navigate difficult discussions, create rapport, and foster resistance.
To summarize, if you are looking at fundraiser events for stigmatized subjects, e.g., suicide, or you just want to bring a community together, say through a difficult time, comedy can be a life-saving medicine.
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Comedy, Storytelling, and the Emotional Connection
Facts and figures help provide veracity, but storytelling makes a charity fundraiser compelling. We don’t form an emotional connection to data. This is yet another reason why hiring a stand-up comedian is one of the better fundraiser ideas. Comedians are inherently storytellers. They want to make the audience laugh, sure, and do so by constructing narratives. And connecting to a larger narrative is what charity fundraisers are all about. Comedians want you to laugh, and fundraisers want you to donate money—but they also want you to connect to their overall cause, much like a comedian wants you to buy into their comedic premises.
And when your fundraiser entertainment reaches people on a deeper, emotional level through storytelling, attendees are often more likely to donate money. If a comedian’s primary goal is to make the audience laugh as much as possible, a fundraiser’s primary goal is to make the audience donate as much money as possible.
But what makes comedians such great storytellers? A comedian’s full-time job isn’t making people laugh: it’s forging an emotional connection with the audience so they can laugh. You have to grab an audience’s attention as soon as possible. You can’t risk boring them. And people who aren’t on board with a stand-up comedian will let them know. Seldom is there a job where people routinely shout at you for not doing a good enough job—and the shouter isn’t your supervisor.
A comedian is being incessantly judged on their performance. By the time a comedian is good enough to perform at a function, they have honed their material time and time again. They know how and when to hit the right emotional beats.
There’s a reason think pieces will refer to stand-up as storytelling at its best. Comedy often relies on vulnerability, because when we’re vulnerable, we’re more likely to join someone’s emotional wavelength. A comedian’s struggles all become fodder.
To bring it home, a stand-up comedian is also a storyteller; they expose their insecurities and shortcomings, practicing these stories again and again in front of live audiences that give them real-time feedback on the stories’ ability to maintain their interest. An interest that they need to sustain for upwards of an hour, constantly being evaluated. But once they’ve mastered getting and maintaining an audience’s attention, they form stronger emotional connections. And a stronger connection can often lead to larger donations.
Cutting Through the Noise: Comedy’s Power to Garner Attention
One of the unspoken truths about a charity fundraiser is that it lives or dies on promotion. Likewise, a comedian needs their name in the zeitgeist. They need to accrue fans to sustain a career, but first they need people to go to their shows. You can’t raise money at one of your fundraiser events if no one knows it’s going on. To wit: both comedians and fundraisers need awareness above all things.
Nowadays, awareness is often still spread via word of mouth, but much like fire needs a fuel source, oxygen, and heat, awareness for your cause (or a comedian’s brand) needs the fuel source that is social media.
And a comedian needs an ample fuel source because so many other entertainers, influencers, thought leaders, and anyone else with a smartphone and an internet connection are vying for your attention.
A venue will help promote a comedian, but it’s largely up to the performer to make a name for themselves. Dane Cook was an early adopter of the format, parlaying his presence on Myspace (and, what would seem counterintuitive, uploading his material on file-sharing applications like Napster). And thanks to his tireless self-promotion, Cook’s brand went stratospheric.
If a comedian wants more fans, they need more followers on social media. If a fundraiser wants more money (and of course they do; the more money the better), they need to leverage social media. From the number of your twitter followers to increasing your options for donating, e.g., through Facebook and other social media platforms, as well as being able to show donor impact, share links, and build trust, social media is an invaluable tool for your fundraising efforts.
In summary, both comedians and fundraising need the calories that social media provides to keep them not only alive but also stronger. Yet, unlike humans, who need a set amount of calories to keep us going through the day, fundraisers and comedians need an unlimited amount of calories ingested through social media.
Conclusion: Comedy as Fundraiser Entertainment—The No-Brainer
One of the better fundraising ideas you’ll come across is getting a comedian to perform at your event. As mentioned, comedy can be a life-saving tool. Humor is also the emotional solvent that allows us to bond. Comedy can be vulnerability, and what is asking for money but not expressing vulnerability—to ask for something you don’t have but desperately need. Adding humor to an event creates value because it softens the blow of asking for money by also providing a service. Trauma is ubiquitous, but it takes skill and hard work to transform something tragic into something enjoyable. If comedy excels at anything, it’s finding the humor in failure. There is very little funny to be found in success.
At Hire a Comedian, we have decades of experience with a wide spectrum of performers, from clean to club acts. Our performers have entertained corporate audiences and college students. And as long as your company doesn’t operate out of an ice floe in the middle of the Atlantic, it’s highly likely we can bring a comedian to you. You can search by city or by state, because from Wyoming to West Virginia, we can provide the fundraiser entertainment you need.
Reach out to Hire a Comedian today; we’d love to make your fundraiser event not only a one-time success but also an annual tradition.
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