UsernameEmailRegionInterestAOL IMICQ IDYahoo! IDMSN IDJabber

Thomas just smiles and waits out the mini-rant. He'd heard it before and he'd once put forth the idea to Bruce who'd explained to him just how one used the cut throat and fickle upper society to the charity's advantage.

"You'd think so at first. Take out the party, put the money to charity. If you did that you'd actually have far less money in the end to give than with the party. It's simple really. Other than for the obvious reasons of awareness, the parties serve other purposes."

Now he lowers his voice a little so it doesn't carry across the room. "It takes advantage of their showmanship. Because it's hard enough to seperate people from their money, but these are rich ones. They got rich by being very good at keeping their money, you've got to do more than show up at their door and ask. So the organizers use that. You think Mr. CEO of Wheaties over there would've spent even half as much on that shot of the tigress if this wasn't an auction and his rival wasn't right there? No way. The guest list is specifically for this. The wives want to show each other up, the husbands want to show each other up, hell the families want to do it.

You take advantage of it is all. Sell tickets at high prices and dangle them in front of the social climbers, give the highest bidder a plaque for it, name something after them if they donate enough, you name it. Because once you do those things that giant donation? It won't be a one time thing. They'll need to maintain it. To continue being the top donater, the best patron. And that's when they really empty their pockets. They could care less if this was the gingivities auction. What matters is reputation and showing everyone else up. And the ones that don't care about that? Well these things are easy tax breaks and good PR. You can switch out the cause for almost anything. But if you do the party right and have the right guest list, that's key, you can raise an incredible amount of money. Money that none of these people would've agreed to part with without all the pomp and circumstance."

He leans away now and puts his hands in his pockets with a shrug and a slight smirk. Hey, it was underhanded, pessimistic and rather cutthroat but you had to be when dealing with people like this. He continues at his normal volume with some false cheer in his voice, "Plus, everyone loves a good party right?"