Todd Sampson and Jackie Frank offer mentorships for money in aid of kids’ auction
Todd Sampson: mentor skills available to highest bidder at charity auction
Todd Sampson, sometime adman, Fairfax director and TV star, will join Pacific Magazines’ group publisher – fashion and health, Jackie Frank, and a host of other senior business executives auctioning off their talents as mentors to help boost children’s charity ChildFund Australia.
The MentorMe Auction is underway with bidders having the chance to earn one-on-one time with Sampson, Frank, award-winning producer Jason Burrows, Carnival Australia CEO Ann Sherry, and LinkedIn Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia MD, Cliff Rosenberg, among others.
In total 10 executives are auctioning an hour of their time in what ChildFund CEO Nigel Spence describes as “an experiment”.
“We were in contact with some of these people and aware of what great talent they are,” Spence said.
“I don’t know if we will repeat it yet. In some ways it is a bit of an experiment.”
Bidding is already at the underway at the MentorMe website for the chance to secure face-to-face time with the mentors who represent a wide variety of backgrounds and industries.
Jason Burrows: hopes for plenty of bids from across industries
Jason Burrows, founder and managing director of production company, Jungle, which he started on his kitchen table, said he liked the idea that someone could tap into his experience while raising funds for a charity.
The producer of shows such as The Elegant Gentleman’s Guide to Knife Fighting and A Moody Christmas, said mentorships were too often associated with people coming into the workforce.
“I think there should be a lot more mentorship at all levels, Burrows said.
“I also think you can get really interesting ideas from people who may not be working in the same industry as you.”
Spence said that he hoped bids would come from companies looking to use the mentors as a chance to inspire their own teams, and from aspiring leaders of tomorrow wanting to learn, firsthand, from those who had already experienced success.
The auction runs until March 16 with more details and the complete list of talent up for grabs at auction available here.
Spence said he expected healthy competition between the executives to see who could raise the most money.
Simon Canning
This is more consultancy than mentorship. But I hope the auction goes well.
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Coming from a marketing background I don’t understand this logic at all? What donor would ‘bid’ to get business tips from entrepreneurs?
Good luck to them but cannot see this idea working for a small international development charity like ChildFund Australia.
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Hmmm… what a waste of time! I don’t see this being beneficial and assume the amount of time taken to organise this could have been spent elsewhere. Good luck ChildFund…
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This ‘experiment’ as the CEO put it looks like a waste of Australian donations.
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