Founded in 1988, Robin Hood targets poverty in New York City by partnering with effective programs to maximize results. Emceed by Daily Show host Jon Stewart, the event featured celebrities such as Michael Douglas, Martha Stewart, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, actress Jane Krakowski, and folk rock legend Graham Nash, who also performed. During the course of the evening, two people paid $400,000 each to sing a song with the rock group Aerosmith, a package that included dinner for ten with chef Mario Batali fetched $1.3 million, and an all-expenses-paid trip to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing that includes hanging out with Today show host Matt Lauer went for $2.2 million. Even Jamie Niven, a vice chairman at Sotheby’s who has been handling charity auctions for fifteen years, was impressed. “The amount of money raised is so disproportionate to any other auction that I do,” he said. “Usually, if you raise $1 million you’ve done very well.”
The benefit has come a long way from its debut at the Manhattan Club in 1990, when it raised $700,000. Started by Paul Tudor Jones II, a hedge fund veteran, Robin Hood has, according to the Times, become the “it” charity of the hedge fund set and its benefit is one of the most popular charity events of the year.
“This is one of the single finest marketing machines for…an extraordinary cause I have ever witnessed,” said one participant. “You could poll ten CEOs [and ask] have you ever seen a product better marketed and sold than the Robin Hood brand. It truly is genius.”
“It was overwhelming,” added Glenn Dubin of Highbridge Capital. “There was a feeling of social responsibility and philanthropy in the room that was palpable.”