Q. How do you raise money for charity in the midst of a recession? A. Go for the gut, and take small donations. 

This is the powerful strategy behind Food and Wine Magazine’s initiative Chefs Make Change, a loose coalition of ten superstar chefs, each of whom supports or runs a charitable organization. Not surprisingly, many of these are focused on whether, what, and how people eat. Chef Cat Cora’s group, Chefs for Humanity, for example, sends chefs to organize food-relief for emergencies in the US and abroad. The Mario Battali Foundation takes a holistic approach, aiming to keep children “well read, well fed, and well cared for.” Together, they hope to raise a million dollars, much of it through microdonations via Food and Wine’s Facebook page.

Dana Cowin, Food and Wine’s Editor-in-Chief is, if you will, the Professor X behind this team of celebrity superfriends. Cowin asked each chef for recipes to share in a magazine and web feature she wrote about Chefs Make Change.  Chefs, she says, are unique among philanthropists: 

Dana Cowin: Every single chef I know feels privileged to be doing the job that they do, which is making food that they love for people who can afford it and appreciate it.  But equally, every chef I know feels an obligation to give back in some way.  I think chefs are fundamentally generous people.  They’re creating a place for people to gather and enjoy life. And when a chef thinks about giving back, they think about giving back what they care most about – good food.  

The Psychology of Giving: Why No One Can Raise the Dough Like a Celebrity Chef

Since time immemorial, the centerpiece of any good fundraiser has been good food. Celebrity chefs combine star power with the warm, open feeling we associate with being fed. To watch Mario Battali on Food Network is to feel that you’re hanging out in his kitchen, a casual apprentice to the art of the meatball. It doesn’t take a tremendous leap of imagination to extend this sense of trust to a charity he supports. And with incomes tight, trust is key; people are self-interested at the best of times, and a prolonged recession can induce a siege mentality, inducing us to hoard what little we have toward the uncertain future. 

Microdonations – a Little Adds up to a Lot 

Chefs Make Change leverages Facebook to enable large numbers of people to support whichever cause appeals to them most via online donations of any size. While Cowin believes that the recession inspires the wealthiest individuals to give more generously out of a sense of gratitude for their own good fortune, microdonations allow for a broader base of grass-roots participation, enabling people with tighter incomes to support causes they believe in. And as the 2004 Obama campaign demonstrated, a sufficient number of small online donations can add up to an economic force to be reckoned with.  

Food & Wine’s Dana Cowin on Each Cause Behind Chefs Make Change