Young Professionals Are Using Fresh Fund-Raising Techniques to Change Ways Charities Work

Derek Alpert is hardly your stereotypic volunteer. He is the 29-year-old director of music for film and television at A&M; Records and also is president of Concern II, a philanthropic organization funding cancer research whose 500 members are young professionals from 18 to 35 years old.

Alpert is one of a growing number of young adults--especially young professionals--who are forming charity groups. Once thought to be the domain of middle-aged matrons, support and fund-raising organizations are courting fresh blood, hoping these new members will stay involved for life.

Established charities are discovering, sometimes the hard way, that volunteers who have devoted time and money for years can’t be counted on forever. To build a new base of support, they’re enticing new recruits with parties that don’t cost an arm and a leg and events and meetings planned around 40-hour work weeks.

Even without top-notch business contacts, many young professionals are proving to be pretty good money-raisers. Derek Alpert had his doubts that anything would come of Concern II when he and a handful of others decided in 1981 to form the group, a spinoff of the senior group, Concern, which was founded in 1968 and also funds cancer research. (Many Concern II members are sons and daughters of Concern members, though Alpert’s family is not involved.)

“We all said it could never happen, but it did,” said Alpert, the nephew of musician Herb Alpert, co-owner and vice chairman of A&M; Records. “I wasn’t really sure that people in their early or mid-20s really cared about anyone besides themselves.”

‘Something Pretty Special’

Such misgivings were dispelled when Concern II’s first fund-raiser drew 750 people, and only 200 had been expected. “We knew right then and there,” he recalled, “that we had something pretty special.”

Alpert and others involved realized that if they were to keep Concern II afloat, they would have to ignore certain unwritten rules about charity organizations. After all, they weren’t dealing with men and women who had a lot of time or money. Thus, dues are a minimum of $25, and tickets to Concern II events are about $30. The way Alpert figures it, $30 covers the cost of dinner, a movie and parking in Westwood. Members are not asked to conduct massive fund drives, and meetings are held at off-hours.

Concern II members also do something you won’t find at your average $500-per-plate black-tie fund-raiser: They invite young cancer patients to their events. “It’s reality staring you in the face,” Alpert said. “You realize there is more to life than hanging out in singles bars.”

He is adamant that Concern II is not for the young and unattached on the make. “People who join thinking it’s going to be like that drop off real fast. We’re not the lonely hearts club.”

Some become involved because of personal experiences with cancer. “But if they have,” Alpert added, “they don’t let you know about it. A couple of years ago I was asked if that’s why I got involved. But, really, I’ve been lucky--no one in my family has had cancer. Someone told me (working with Concern II) was like an insurance policy. God forbid it should happen, but if it does I’ll know I did something in my life to try to stop it.”

So far Concern II has raised $450,000 through parties, fashion shows and donations, with some of that money going to Childrens Hospital, Hebrew University in Jerusalem and UCLA and USC.

Separate From the Original

Although Concern II is separate from the original Concern group, both have funded the same projects in the past. Of the $1 million that Concern gave to different groups last year, $215,000 came from Concern II. (Concern’s 12th annual Rodeo Drive Block Party, one of its largest fund-raising events, will be held May 18.)

Clayton Sommers, a private investor who is president of Concern, believes this younger generation of volunteers has had a positive effect on the older generation. “It has been an impetus,” he said, “seeing the energy they put into things. It was clear when Concern II was started that unless we got younger people involved, Concern would not survive.”

A similar charity group called Friends for Life was born when Jeff Lapin decided he had attended one too many “stuffy” charity events. With the help of some friends, he started Friends, which funds the pediatric intensive-care unit at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

“We all wanted to do something for kids,” said Lapin, 29, secretary and general counsel of Hotel Properties Inc. “My friends are at the point now where we’re having kids or thinking about having them. I was familiar with Cedars-Sinai because both my parents are involved with its charities. I met with the head of the pediatric ICU and found that there was no group attached to it.”

Last year the 60-member committee of Friends for Life raised $50,000 for the ICU, most of that through their one big yearly event, a casino-style party held in the fall. There are no dues, but members must spend time in the ICU becoming familiar with the setup.

The group’s members are doctors, lawyers, movie studio executives and the like, said Lapin. “It’s very upscale. We have some people whose salaries are in six figures. These up-and-comers are untapped charity-wise. If they are tapped, they will contribute.”

But when it comes to charity groups, time is just as important as money. In fact, most working people probably find it less trouble to write a check for $250 than to spend five hours a week stuffing envelopes.

The solution? At least one volunteer believes that more philanthropic organizations will have to schedule well-organized meetings after business hours. Janet Jones-Rutt, vice president of George Elkins Co., a Beverly Hills real estate firm, said she resigned from the Junior League because she felt this women’s organization, dedicated to community service work, “did not recognize the special needs of women who work.”

The 33-year-old Jones-Rutt now has other involvements with Luminaires Juniors, a spinoff of the Luminaires, which benefits the Estelle Doheny Eye Foundation; and Colleague Helpers and Philanthropic Service (CHIPS), a spinoff of the Colleagues, which benefits the Children’s Institute International, a local foundation for abused children. Both are women-only groups, and she says most members do not work. The ones who do tend to own their own businesses or be business executives.

Adapting to Work Schedules

“With these younger groups,” she said, “you’re seeing many more night meetings, and committees being set up for research and development to establish long-term goals. If these groups can’t adapt to women’s work schedules, they will disappear. And when we participate in something, we need people to say they understand our time is valuable. I have a small child, I live in Pasadena and work in Beverly Hills. When I go to a meeting, I want to get on with it quickly. It’s nice to know that the time taken out of my schedule is appreciated.

“Being in the groups has been fun,” she added. “It’s a real challenge to see how much money you can raise for an organization. Also there is the camaraderie you have when you join a group. People want to accomplish something, but they also want to see their friends.”

Not all young-adult groups make fund-raising their first priority. The Music Center’s two junior groups, In the Wings (ages 25 to 40) and Music Center Connections (ages 22 to 32), were started to drum up interest in the center through performances and social functions. The theory is that once they get hooked, they’ll want to devote more time and money in the future.

An Event for Dance Fans

Connections’ first function takes place Tuesday. For $35, a dance aficionado can attend a cocktail party at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion; a performance by the Joffrey Ballet, followed by a backstage tour and a chat with the ballet’s associate director, Gerald Arpino; then another party at the Hungry Tiger restaurant, where guests can meet the dancers.

“This is for people to learn more about the performing arts, and also provide a forum for people to get together,” said Rick Caruso, a 27-year-old attorney and founding member of the group. “The Performing Arts Council (the fund-raising arm of the Music Center) is striving to get a younger base.”

Catherine Hunt Ruddy, a 32-year-old attorney who is a past president of In the Wings, said with a laugh that she joined the group “because I was looking for the opportunity to meet people who weren’t lawyers. I spend most of my time with lawyers. But it was also a chance to get involved in the community.”

Each year, In the Wings offers a “Sampler Series” to give people a taste of what the center has to offer. Tickets are $96 per person for four performances. Single members are required to buy two tickets to the series and sell four, couples must buy two and sell eight. Plus, there are yearly dues of $125.

To date, there are no plans for fund-raisers. “A lot of people in this age group are intimidated by that,” said Ruddy. “It’s hard to ask people for money. The sampler series is more appealing.”

Frank Hobbs, a 33-year-old law firm partner and current president of In the Wings, agrees. “It’s hard for people who don’t come from a monied background to become involved with the Music Center, where so much attention is given to fund-raising.”

More Junior Counterparts

The Los Angeles Philharmonic has a group that parallels In the Wings, called Fanfare, now in its third year. Members say they now want to go beyond parties and selling tickets and take on a fund-raising project.

Still more organizations are creating junior counterparts. Vista del Mar Child-Care Service, a residential treatment program for disturbed children, is supported in part by two organizations: the Junior Associates for women and the President’s Club for men. Both groups not only raise money but spend time with the children at athletic events and other gatherings. Also, Home-Safe Child Care Inc., which provides day care and other services, has the Bright Futures; and the Julia Ann Singer Center, which handles child-abuse cases and offers special schooling for emotionally disturbed children, has the Circle of Friends of Julia Ann Singer.

The Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, an umbrella fund-raising group representing Jewish charity groups, is building a network of new groups. Among them are the Young Adults Division, the Young Executives Group, the Leadership Development Group and the Young Women’s Division, part of the Women’s Division of the United Jewish Fund. Childrens Hospital has the Mary Duque Juniors for young women.

Yet another type of junior support group exists at the City of Hope. The President’s Advisory Council, in its sixth year, requires young adults to participate in a yearlong orientation session. They attend three meetings a month, learning everything about the hospital, from where the laundry is done to how finances are handled. Once the orientation session is completed, they meet with the hospital’s board of directors to make suggestions or ask questions. There is no sales pitch, only the suggestion of joining PAC, any other support group or forming a new chapter. The majority do. Some have even become members of the board.

Mike Hersch, senior general partner of the Hersch Companies, a Los Angeles-based investment firm, and four-time president of the City of Hope, started the council so the hospital would have the guarantee of a support group years from now. Some 350 people, young adults “who seem to have a foot up on the first rung of the ladder of success,” as Hersch puts it, have already completed the program.

“People have to learn at a very early age what it means to give,” Hersch said. “Young people today are different from their parents . . . the current generation is more incisive, more perceptive as to how their skills are best utilized. These young people are so full of vigor. I couldn’t be more proud of anything I did.”