The launch of the Fortune Forum tonight heralds a new style of fundraising, imported from America, and aimed at a new generation of super-rich donors. Guy Adams reports
Published: 26 September 2006
Bill Clinton has agreed to speak. Michael Douglas will present a 'special award', and Sir Richard Branson and Lakshmi Mittal are bringing along tables of guests. After dinner, Yusuf Islam, the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens, will give his first major live performance for more than 28 years.
Tonight, London's A-list will be on a red carpet near Tower Bridge. The likes of the actress Catherine Zeta-Jones and the ballerina Darcey Bussell will rub shoulders with the supermodel Lily Cole and the television presenter Trinny Woodall.
Champagne will be guzzled by the bucketload, and six-figure sums bid for 'once-in-a-lifetime' auction lots. On paper, it promises to be the biggest charity bash since, well, since the last one.
The launch of the Fortune Forum may herald something more important, though. Behind the velvet ropes, organisers want Mr Clinton to help transform the face of British philanthropy.
For their £1,000-a-head, 500 guests are buying into a new era of US-style fundraising where, to borrow from tonight's line-up, Deepak Chopra lectures on how 'spirituality can heal the divisions of the world', and Dave Stewart 'sings for spiritual awareness'.
Renu Mehta, the socialite and former fashion designer who organised the bash, said: 'We are hoping to completely change the culture of giving in Britain, by stimulating philanthropic habits you'd normally only expect to see across the Atlantic. There are billions of pounds in untapped charity money wasted in the UK. We need to provide a system that helps people to give, and will get our levels into line with what you'd call the bigger nations. If it works, we will create a new generatio"
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