While looking at Twitter for the 800th time today, I read a random tweet about raising money for charity. When I clicked the attached link, I landed at Charity Bribes, a new site aimed at convincing celebrities to “do a little awesome for a lot of good.”

Basically, the premise of the site is as follows:

• Users generate and vote on ideas, as well as the charities that will benefit from them.
• Every month, a different bribe is chosen.
• People join the bribe by pledging money.
• Charity Bribes contacts celebrity to pitch the bribe.
• Celebrity has 30 days to complete task.
• If said bribe works, pledged funds go to charity. If not, nobody pays.

I LOVE this idea! Not only does it get people who wouldn’t ordinarily give to charity excited about the process, but it makes donating fun! I mean, who doesn’t want to see  Morgan Freeman spending an afternoon narrating user submitted animal videos? OR see a picture of how Donald Trump’s hair looks when he wakes up? 



In the wake of several natural disasters and a tough economy, a lot of folks are suffering from donor fatigue so the opportunity to inject a bit of fun into serious giving seems welcome. Charity Bribes is obviously on a small scale, but it provides a space to donate to a different charity every month. If it takes off, which I hope it does, celebrities fulfilling bribes could bring more awareness to these charities as well, hopefully encouraging further donations.

OK, it’s a great cause, but how does Charity Bribes make money? Well, like any website, they’ll have expenses to cover. The site takes 5% of donations to cover expenses and work on new features. It doesn’t sound like much, but if the site takes off the way I think it could, this could be a viable business that not only entertains but educates and raises money for worthy causes.

Social media is going to play a big part in the success of this venture. can see many people getting excited about certain bribes, and plenty of the ideas already submitted would go viral in an instant. I mean, Jack Black and Jack White getting together to sing Ebony and Ivory? YouTube gold!

A self confessed experiment by tech savvy advertising writers, William Burks Spencer and Chris Baker, Charity Bribes has a ton of potential. It’s only been online for three days so it’s a little early to tell how things are going, but I for one would love to see this site succeed… if only to be able to hear the results of Tom Waits recording a children’s album.

The first bribe is for Larry David to join Twitter, and I can’t lie, I’d follow him. After three days online, the bribe currently has 45 participants, with $1,201 pledged.