I used to receive rather fancy invitations from clients I used to work for to buy a table to honor the CEO  that was going to receive an honor at a fund raising gala at a posh place like the Waldorf Astoria and all I had to do was to pony up some $10,000 to $25,000 for a table at the event.

I never bought into these dunning approaches by my clients and the charities they bought into, for two reasons:  One I was a boutique public relations, crisis and issue management operation and I knew what I had to offer and they couldn’t get my services anywhere else, secondly I wasn’t going to play with the big boys, because I didn’t have to buy my way into the board room.

Nevertheless it was a technique used by many a fund raising institution.  And in many an instance they were tapping into the ego of the CEO of many a Corporation, but at his Corporation’s expense and those of its vendors.

You see it was a leveraging game that would trickle down with an implied pressure point that would coerce anyone working for the honoree.

But today, according to the New York Times, even the biggest of Corporations, least of all the vendors, can no longer afford this charade.

Why?  Well the Times says, “Because an honoree is not chosen just to give a speech and be feted.  He or she must be willing to make a big donation, usually from the company’s coffers, and — more important — to invite friends and contacts to the gala who will buy $20,000 tables or single tickets for $2,000 to $3,000 bringing new support to the organization.”

And so it is no wonder that Carnegie Hall’s Board canceled a benefit honoring anyone with the Medal of Excellence this year, which heretofore raised $4.2 million.

I am sure this will also effect those phony awards that are given out at advertising, public relations and other business functions doing very much the same thing, but in these instances providing dollars for profit institutions.  Making money on plaques, other than for those that allegedly deserved them, to purchase others for those that were associated with the award.

The dire straits of the economy has reached into areas of the ego in which corporations or vendors of same can no longer tap into a form of phony ponzi scheme by charitable, or for that matter for profit institutions.