Charitable giving goes layaway route

By JENNIFER BRETT

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The featured designer at Jeffrey Fashion Cares 2009 could hardly be more fabulous. Jason Wu, who created Michelle Obama’s inaugural ball gown, is coming to town.

But in these financially unfabulous times, organizers are bending a bit. For the first time, fashionistas can buy tickets — $500 for general admission or up to $10,000 for 10 VIP patron billets — on an installment plan.

That’s right. Atlanta society has embraced layaway.

“Brilliant!” declared philanthropic scenester Vicki Palefsky. “That is an awesome idea and one that I wish I had thought of.”

Credit goes to Sacha Taylor, who is chairing Fashion Cares with Lila Hertz.

“I thought Lila was going to tell me I was crazy,” Taylor said.

In fact, Hertz loved the idea. “People are really stretching this year,” she said.

A Giving USA Foundation report found charitable donations in the United States dropped 2 percent from 2007 to 2008, the first decline since 1987. At the same time, human services charities reported increased need. Fashion Cares benefits the Atlanta AIDS Partnership Fund and the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation. Organizers hope to at least match last year’s haul of $800,000.

“There’s such need,” said breast cancer survivor and Fashion Cares volunteer Joyce Dilworth.

Vanessa Hardy Burks, administrative director for Komen Atlanta, said Fashion Cares is a significant funding source. “We depend on this every year,” she said.

The event, founded by Jeffrey Kalinsky, has featured designers Isaac Mizrahi and Oscar de la Renta in the past. This year’s event, honoring Anne Barge, starts at 7 p.m. Aug. 31 at the downtown W. The host committee, co-chaired by Nina Cheney and Jill Siegel, has already raised more than $239,000.

Taylor, who came up with the payment plan idea after detecting concern over ticket prices, says a few tickets have already been sold this way, but no one will ever know.

“You don’t want to offend anyone,” Hertz said. “The hardest part was coming up with the wording.”

No one is actually saying “layaway,” of course, and those who buy their tickets over time can expect discretion befitting a plastic surgeon’s office. (E-mail accounting@jeffreyfashioncares.com to set up a payment plan).

“It preserves folks’ dignity,” observed Palefsky, who chaired this spring’s Alliance Theatre gala, which honored Hertz’s father-in-law, the late Jennings Hertz Jr. “It allows them the opportunity to give at a higher level than they might otherwise be able to, preserves the donor base, fills the house, gives the air of success and ensures that you’ll reach your financial goals.”

Other fund-raisers are reflecting the economy. Major sponsors of the Sept. 19 Opera Ball, to be held at the St. Regis, can pay in installments, said chair Joanne Chesler Gross. Tickets to the Nov. 6 Meal To Remember for Meals On Wheels Atlanta, also at the St. Regis, are $1,000 per couple, a $500 price drop from last year.

“We wanted to better ensure broader participation in these tough times,” said co-chair Charlene Crusoe-Ingram.

Melanie Boltax may borrow the installment idea. Tickets to her Oct. 16 luncheon at the Buckhead Ritz-Carlton to benefit Camp Kudzu are a manageable $100, but she could see offering $2,500 table sponsorships on payment plans.

“It’s a fantastic idea,” she said. “You can sit there and write check after check after check until there’s nothing left.”