charities

Lady Gaga's Charity Donated Just $5,000 of Its $2.1 Million

Rich Juzwiak · 03/12/14 03:30PM

News has emerged that Lady Gaga's Born This Way Foundation could be a mere vanity project. Have you ever? Can you even? (No, you can't. You either already tweeted or are just about to tweet, "I can't with this," about this.) We all can collectively gasp while secretly saying, "Yaaaaaas," in our heads regarding Gaga's latest endeavor in hot messery.

Tina Brown’s Charity Mostly Threw Parties for Tina Brown

J.K. Trotter · 09/13/13 11:09AM

The Women in the World Foundation, former Daily Beast editor Tina Brown’s very own charity, is nominally devoted to “driving solutions that advance women and girls.” According to its sole IRS filing, the New York Post points out, Women in the World spent the plurality of funds raised in 2011, totaling more than a million dollars, on throwing lavish gatherings for its director and her connected friends. That’s one kind of solution!

Do Not Give a Dollar to the Opera

Hamilton Nolan · 09/09/13 09:50AM

Alarming news for music lovers: the New York City Opera, which has performed in the city for generations, will have to cancel the rest of its season and all of next year's season if it doesn't raise $20 million soon. A tragedy, for the arts. Still, no one should give the opera $20 million.

Why is Kanye West's Charity Dead?

Seth Abramovitch · 04/21/11 12:14AM

Move over, Madonna: Yet another pop megalomaniac's educational charity has met a premature end, as the Kanye West Foundation is no more. But why that is, and where its millions of dollars in corporate donations have gone, remains a mystery.

The Bloomberg Foundation Loves Offshore Tax Havens

Hamilton Nolan · 04/21/10 10:43AM

Mike Bloomberg—not only our selfless, dollar-a-year salary mayor, but a massive philanthropist, too. What's not to like? Well, how about the fact that his charitable foundation doesn't want to pay taxes here, in the United States of America?

Get Within 25 Feet of a Supermodel For $25K

cityfile · 10/23/09 02:03PM

Would you pay $25,000 to sit in the front row at next month's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show? Because you could if you wanted to. And it's entirely possible the stars could align and and a little stray supermodel body glitter could fly off the runway and land in your lap, and that alone would be well worth $25K, wouldn't it? Thought so! [ALZ.org]

Recreate Obama 'Date Night' in the Comfort of Your Own Home

cityfile · 09/25/09 12:47PM

Ever wish you could rest your rear end in a seat where the President and First Lady once sat? Now you can! The owners of the Belasco Theatre are auctioning off the seats that the Obamas sat in when they attended a performance of "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" during their "date night" in NYC last spring. [NYP]

Out With the Old

cityfile · 08/27/09 10:03AM

The junior committees at major cultural institutions around town are designed for younger—or youngish—people, right? Well, it seems some old-timers have been trying to slip by at the Museum of Modern Art, according to the WSJ's Speakeasy blog, and the museum isn't taking it anymore:

Artwalk NY: A Q&A With Peter Davis

cityfile · 08/19/09 11:19AM

Artwalk NY's Junior Committee held its summer benefit on Saturday night in support of Coalition For the Homeless. Hosted by Bettina Prentice at her home in Sagaponack, attendees at the event included Minnie Mortimer and Stephen Gaghan, Michael Musto, Liam McMullan, Dalia Oberlander, Alan Rish, Kipton Cronkite, and Lisa Salzer—each of whom chipped in $25 at the door to benefit the organization. (The $25 allows the Coalition to feed 12 homeless New Yorkers people for a day.) Cityfile correspondent Douglas Marshall caught up with writer and dapper man-about-town Peter Davis to ask him about two very unlikely things: homelessness and his brother and sister-in law, Topper and Tinsley Mortimer.