How to ask this famous person for help?!

[ifyouknowyouknow82]

Not a typical mumsnetty question but just looking for a bit of advice and no-one in my immediate circle is being that helpful! Perhaps someone on here has some expertise in this area.

I run a very small not for profit enterprise. We help ex-offenders get access to the music industry and train them up. We are only very small (15 people a year) but we do good work and they have gone on to work in the sector.

We are organising a special gala night to try to generate a bit of support, publicity and donations. It coincides with our ten year anniversary in December. I really want us to ask a celebrity to attend to take part in a bit of a Q&A led by one of our ex-participants. This would give the gala a massive boost and encourage lots of people to attend, which we desperately need.

I have a famous musician / artist in mind who I met at something randomly, and they offered their support at the time and were very nice, and gave me their email. We followed up with a brief exchange but then the pandemic happened, so unfortunately that curtailed our email communication and threw everything in the air with me fighting for our project to survive (thankfully we kept going).

Anyway, whilst I'm a capable woman and working mum I'm absolutely useless at asking favours and asking for help, and especially the idea of sucking up to a celebrity makes my teeth shiver!

I have no idea what to say in my email and how to phrase what I am asking for. I know this person is extremely busy and has been doing a lot of promotion for their new stuff recently and I realise we are very small fry!

Also we can budget to pay this person but I don't know whether to mention this - I know they might offer to do it for free but I don't want to presume, but at the same time our fee is peanuts to this person!

Anyway, what do I say and how do I ask for this help?

How interesting! One suggestion- can you get an agent type person on board to help you with this kind of thing?

As for the email, how's this for a start? I have no expertise, but sometimes having someone do it wrong is enough to help you work out how you want to do it!

"We'd love to follow up your offer to support our charity, now we're back to business as usual post Covid. We'd like to invite you to xyz, which will help us to raise our profile and increase the scope of our work. As you may remember, our work with ex offenders is instrumental in getting them a fresh start and changing their trajectory.
I was thrilled to meet you at abc in 2019, and hope the long delay hasn't put you off getting involved!

Hi Celebrity,
I hope this email finds you well. You will remember that we met a couple of years ago at XXXXX event, and you very kindly offered your support with the YYYYY project that I am working on. The pandemic delayed our plans somewhat but we are now organised an event and I'd like to invite you to join us there. Any support you are able to offer will be very much appreciated, but what I have in mind is a Q&A, with one of our participants asking you the questions. This would be a great boost for their work experience and with your participation it would also really raise the profile of our organisation. Is this something you would be willing to help us with? It would be great to discuss with you further if so. You can contact me on email/phone number.
With many thanks,
Ifyouknowyouknow82

Hello,

I do this quite a lot in my job and the times I have reached out to people i've thought would never been interested i've always had really positive outcomes.

Don't use an agency and DON'T suggest that it will raise the profile of YOUR company by having them on board, i'm sure you can think of a million other reasons why you want this person to represent your charity, and raising your profile shouldn't be the main one.

Be really clear in your first email on these points:

What your charity does
Why you want them involved specifically (talk about their positive influence on your community, the work they have previously done, the influence they have etc, - big them up)
What it is EXACTLY that you want them to do in a nutshell. Be really clear here so they know what you are asking of them and it being non paid etc. Lay it all out on the table now.

and remember, this person may be very passionate about your charities work and be thrilled to help out, regardless of how it might benifit them, so be confident and calm about what you can offer.

keep it fairly short and to-the-point but be honest and open, try sound human not like some Linkedin nutter pitching for a brand collab, and i'm sure it's be fine. :)

Good Luck OP!

actually, what @perimenofertility is also pretty bang on! :)