Society Diary: The Naked Philanthropist… exposed

10 Jan 2020 Voices

How would you raise money to save this cute little face?

Happy New Year. Diary would like to start the first column of 2020 by announcing that it plans to quit the Civil Society News family and become editorially independent (cue gasps of shock/sighs of relief, delete as appropriate). It plans to continue to fully support the editor in chief and all other members of the firm. Diary will still support when asked, by doing fun things (like writing this column) but will longer do the dull things (like emptying the dishwasher). 

From this year Diary will be splitting its time between Civil Society Towers in London and the seaside, but plans to maintain a desk in the CSM offices as its London base. 

Hopefully none of this comes as too much of a surprise to bosses (reading this is technically the first they will have heard of it, but at least it’s not an Instagram post). There have been massive hints about Diary’s desire to spend more time at the seaside for months now; turning up for work in flip flops, the bucket and spade on the desk, and humming “oh we do like to be beside...” until someone throws something.

Anyway, this week we take an in-depth look at the Naked Philanthropist (not literally, there are no x-rated images), and share our resolutions for the new year.

Stripping off for the Australia fires

Diary is committed to sharing the latest innovations in fundraising, and boy do we have a story to uncover today. 

You’d have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by the images of the devastation that wildfires have been wreaking in Australia, so it’s no surprise that people have been thinking about how they can help.  

For Kaylen Ward, an LA-based model, that meant offering to send a nude photo of herself to anyone who donated at least $10 to charities helping with the fallout. 

In just a few days she estimated that she had raised $1m. And it hasn’t stopped there: her success has inspired other models to copy her and offer “personal photos” (we don’t think that means snaps of their Christmas lunch) in return for donations. 

We’re sure that the fact that Ward’s act of generosity got her face all over the press and led to her social media following rocketing (although Instagram did suspend her account for breaching its terms - in case you were tempted, it does not allow people to offer nude pics) had no bearing on their decision to jump on the bandwagon. 

What a start to 2020. 

Diary’s resolutions 

The beginning of January is the designated time for people to commit to making themselves miserable in order to become better (but sometimes duller) versions of themselves. So without further ado here are Diary’s resolutions for 2020. 

  1. Ensure that this column champions and promotes cute fluffy animals at all given opportunities.
  2. Refrain from gratuitous references to nudity (ok to keep this to one gratuitous nudity reference per month). 
  3. Abstain from obscure cricket references, frankly the rest of the sector could do with following our lead on this.
  4. Maintain a sunny disposition and positive outlook about the world.    

 

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