For the Adult Industry, Giving to Charity Isn't As Easy As It Looks

JESUSLAND—James Deen recently announced that he'd raised over $5,000 for breast cancer research and named the charities to which he planned to donate the funds, while Jessica Drake announced that she'd be spending most of November collecting food, clothing and other necessities for the L.A. Food Bank and the Downtown Women's Center. We'll assume that all of those organizations have agreed to accept the proffered donations—but according to a recent article in The Observer, there are plenty of charities that would refuse adult industry largesse ... if anyone found out about it. "Charities must carefully manage their reputations, which is why it only takes a whiff of scandal for them to turn down money," wrote The Observer's Jack Smith IV. "Rejecting donations from hate groups or mobsters? Makes sense. But when it comes to companies peddling porn, some nonprofits like to swing both ways. It's not that nonprofits won't take money from the adult entertainment industry. Oh no, they simply wish the whole affair to be discreet." Smith's primary example is tube site PornHub, which donated $15,000 to plant new growth forest under its "Give America Wood" campaign—and noted that, according to the site's VP Corey Price, the recipient "politely requested" not to be named. Understandable, considering that a couple of years ago when the site tried to donate $75K to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, which also researches a cure for breast cancer, Komen turned them down, blaming PornHub's use of their name in its press release, which the foundation felt brought ill-repute to it. (PornHub found other breast cancer charities that weren't so finicky.) Another "victim" of charitable discrimination was webcam site Benevidz, self-described as "a safe, high-class, user-friendly option for online erotica." Its owner, Mike Wondercub, has started pooling a percentage of its camgirls' tips which it then donates to a different charity or cause each month, not unlike what Girlfriends Films does each month with $1,000 of the company's earnings. "You have to build a relationship with the charities," Wondercub said. "The stigma is real, but we don’t run into it as much because we’re low-key. ... The Pornhub team is amazing at marketing, but with charity, they jumped the gun." But publicity is what companies, even adult companies, thrive on, so it's not surprising that they'd want to trumpet their charitable giving—but for many mainstreamers, the industry is held in such low repute that taking its money feels dirty to them. But that may be changing. "People are slowly becoming more open minded about being associated with us," said PornHub's Price. "We try to conduct ourselves in a way that steers clear of fulfilling people's preconceived notions of vulgarity, in preference of class and tastefulness." (Yes, the VP of a tube site actually said that.) Smith points out that apparently, disdain for all things adult may be uniquely an American problem. He noted that in September, "a Japanese telethon brought on a dozen porn stars and let fans feel them up on air, raising over $24,000 for the Japan Foundation for AIDS Prevention," while in Norway, there's actually an "eco-porn charity" called Fuck for Forest, which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary of saving rainforests. "But until we're comfortable admitting that porn is increasingly part of the mainstream media pantheon, the relationship between charity and pornography is destined to remain taboo," Smith concluded, "with checks handed over covertly through deals done in secret—akin to an anonymous one-night stand rather than a church marriage." But hey, when it comes to sex—and charitable giving—porners will take it any way they can get it.