Guacamole Fund needs a little green

The longtime beacon of the benefit concert is getting its own benefit concert. On Tuesday, singer-songwriters Bruce Cockburn and Sam Phillips will perform at the Hermosa Beach Playhouse in a fund-raiser for the Guacamole Fund, which has been the country’s leading organizer of cause-driven musical events for 30 years.

Self-effacing to a fault and committed to nuts-and-bolts social issues -- the environment, reproductive rights -- Guacamole has established a reputation for smooth productions and high financial returns.

“I actually haven’t run across anybody doing work like this on this scale,” says Cockburn. “There are individuals in different places, but I don’t know of anyone else doing [this] on a national and international level with the ability to put on a professional show and also make sure the money goes to the cause.”

Why the role reversal? Even though activism among musicians is sharply escalating as they mount high-profile concert campaigns this political season, the Guacamole Fund has suffered a severe reduction in crucial contributions.

The organization closed its small Hermosa Beach office this year and now operates mainly from the home of founder Tom Campbell, who recently sent an e-mail to supporters soliciting help through the lean times.

“We depend on half of our money from foundations and donations from individuals, and it wasn’t happening,” says Campbell. “We had to face the fact that for a while, at least, things were not gonna turn around.

“So we just decided that it was time for us to move into our houses to downsize. We were always really close to the line anyway. That’s the type of group we’ve been for 30 years.”

Campbell’s nonprofit company has had its high-profile moments, including 1979’s “No Nukes” concerts and “Peace Sunday” at the Rose Bowl in 1982, but the bulk of its work is with regional community organizations, out of the media’s glare.

Campbell attributes his situation to a “malaise” among activists that set in after the 2000 election, compounded by Sept. 11 and the bad economy.

-- Richard Cromelin