If you are looking to raise awareness of your charity or cause, an effective method is celebrity endorsement. The celebrity endorsement theory is very simple. People admire celebrities – so, when a celebrity is seen to be working with a charity, they are prompted to learn more about the charity and lend their support.
When we talk about “celebrity endorsement” in the context of charity work, it’s important to understand that the term celebrity extends beyond the red carpet. While traditional celebrities – such as actors, musicians, and television personalities – often come to mind first, today’s landscape of influence is much broader. Social media influencers with large followings, political figures with public platforms, and key opinion leaders respected in specific fields can all function as celebrities in their own right.
What unites them is their ability to capture attention, shape opinions, and inspire action — making their endorsement a powerful tool for charitable causes. Celebrities can publicly support charities in a variety of impactful ways. They might raise awareness by speaking about a cause in interviews, posting on social media, or appearing in public service campaigns.
Many participate in fundraising efforts – hosting benefit events, taking part in charity challenges, or encouraging their followers to donate. Others serve as official ambassadors, lending their name and image to help amplify a charity’s message and reach new audiences. While public endorsement is often the most visible form of support, some celebrities may choose to help behind the scenes – whether by making personal donations, connecting charities with influential networks, or quietly supporting campaigns without seeking the spotlight.
Here we delve into the many benefits that charities can reap as a result of celebrity endorsement in more detail – along with some examples.
Raise your profile
Whether you’re a large not-for-profit organisation or a small start-up charity, enlisting support from a celebrity has the power to significantly elevate your visibility and reach.
Celebrities have strong appeal to the media, and their involvement often acts as a hook that draws in journalists and news outlets, securing coverage that a charity may struggle to achieve on its own. This can lead to interviews, features, and broadcast opportunities that spotlight both the individual and the cause. And on social media, a single post from a well-known figure can introduce the charity to millions of potential supporters almost instantly. This level of exposure can not only raise awareness but also boost your charity’s credibility, attracting new donors, partners, and volunteers.
Before embarking on any celebrity partnership, it’s important to assess whether the celebrity is a good fit for your values, mission, and the audiences you are aiming to reach. It’s also important to consider any potential risks—such as past controversies or conflicting affiliations – that could affect the charity’s reputation. A well-aligned and low-risk partnership can amplify your cause effectively – but a poorly matched or high-risk endorsement could undermine trust and credibility!
As an example – the leading kidney cancer charity, Kidney Cancer UK asked us to help them to boost engagement with their long-running ‘Green Friday’ initiative on social media. To achieve this, we reached out to a list of celebrities and influencers who had a personal connection with kidney cancer and invited them to share an image of themselves wearing/cooking/enjoying something green on the morning of Green Friday, alongside the #GreenFriday hashtag and a link to the Kidney Cancer UK website.
As a result, we saw 17 in-depth social media posts shared by celebrities and influencers who have a genuine connection to kidney cancer, helping the initiative to reach over 465+ million people.
Reach new audiences
As well as reaching wider audiences, another key benefit of working with a celebrity is that they can help you to engage with a completely new audience demographic, which you may not have otherwise had access to previously – opening the door to new potential beneficiaries, donors and supporters. People who may not have heard of you, or felt connected to you previously will now be open to learning more about your cause, because someone they admire is endorsing it.
We have worked with many charities in recent years on securing well-aligned celebrity endorsement, to increase their visibility amongst specific audiences. Take our work with the palliative and bereavement charity, Sue Ryder, as an example. One of our previous campaigns with them was regarding the announcement of social media influencer Lottie Tomlinson as their new celebrity Ambassador for bereavement.
Having lost both her mother and sister within the space of three years, influencer Lottie Tomlinson knew first-hand the immense pain that comes with grieving for a loved one. We invited Lottie to become a celebrity Ambassador for the charity – given her a platform to raise awareness of the support that is available to other people who are grieving.
As a result of this deep connection with the cause, and the authenticity of the partnership, the announcement of Lottie’s Ambassadorship garnered much attention within the media and has resulted in widespread coverage for Sue Ryder. Due to Lottie’s age and the demographic of her following, her support on social media has also opened Sue Ryder’s invaluable work in the bereavement space up to a completely new – and younger – audience demographic.
Amplify action
As we have already established; when a celebrity is seen to be a supporter or a spokesperson for a charity, they use their fame to increase public awareness of an issue. Celebrities, therefore, have the power to add momentum to a cause in a way that ordinary people cannot.
The infamous ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’ is a classic example of how celebrities can help to amplify a campaign movement and boost donations to a cause. The challenge, which encouraged people to dunk a bucket of iced water over their heads to encourage donations for the ALS Association, raised more than £76 million for Lou Gehrig’s Disease sufferers in just one month. How? The viral campaign exploded after high-profile names such as Justin Timberlake, Kim Kardashian, Benedict Cumberbatch, Matt Damon, Victoria Beckham and so many more, filmed themselves being covered in an icy bucket of water, and shared this on their social media channels to raise money for the motor neurone disease.
The quantity and quality of celebrities who lent their support helped the campaign to spread globally and encouraged people all over the world to take part.
Creating useful content
Working with celebrities also presents a valuable opportunity for charities to create fresh, engaging content. Whether it’s photos from a campaign shoot, behind-the-scenes footage, interviews, or social media videos, celebrity involvement can bring a new level of energy and appeal to a charity’s communications. This content can be repurposed across various platforms – websites, newsletters, social media, press materials – to keep messaging dynamic and increase audience engagement. High-quality imagery and footage featuring a recognisable face can also help charities stand out in a crowded media landscape, making their campaigns more shareable and memorable.
Our work with Dementia UK is a great example of this. The charity challenged us with elevating awareness of their annual fundraising initiative, Time for a Cuppa – to encourage more people to sign up. To create some buzz and excitement around the initiative, we decided to launch a celebrity-led photo stunt, which involved recreating some of the most iconic tea-drinking moments in movie-history – from films such as Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Alice in Wonderland, and Mary Poppins.
Using five popular celebrities who have been personally touched by dementia – Emma Barton, Phyllis Logan, Naughty Boy, Jess Wright and Natalya Wright – we were able to create a series of fun and eye-catching images, and deliver coverage in titles such as the METRO, Daily Express, and Mail Online, as well as TV appearances on Lorraine and Good Morning Britain. Our celebrity supporters also shared the campaign across their social media channels, allowing us to tap into their large social media audiences.
Not only did this campaign generate mass awareness for the Time for a Cuppa and encourage people across the country to sign up to support, but it also provided the charity with fresh, colourful and engaging imagery and celebrity quotes – which they were able to utilise on their website, social media and in newsletters and emails.
If you want support with activating a celebrity endorsement for you charity, or how to plan a charity PR plan, speak to a member of our Third Sector PR team.