ATLANTA — Sara Blakely, who founded the Spanx hosiery line in 2000, is expanding into philanthropy with the help of pal and billionaire Richard Branson.
She launched Sara Blakely Foundation, which is intended to benefit women through programs on education and entrepreneurship, at the “Give a Damn” fund-raiser here Saturday night.
A $1,100-a-plate dinner at the Ritz-Carlton attracted 200 guests, including Branson, Jane Fonda, CNN’s Nancy Grace and Andre Benjamin, and featured entertainment by Jewel. The night culminated with a party across Peachtree Street at the former Macy’s downtown store, which drew about 1,100 people. The entire event raised an estimated $600,000.
Blakely got to know Branson after competing on his FOX reality show, “The Rebel Billionaire: Branson’s Quest for the Best” in 2004-2005. Although she didn’t win, Branson gave Blakely $750,000 to start a foundation to benefit women. The first project, a partnership with Branson’s Virgin Unite organization, benefits the Community and Individual Development Association City Campus in Johannesburg, South Africa, which helps send African women to college.
Blakely has expanded her hosiery line to undergarments and apparel, including Assets, a division sold exclusively at Target. Total revenues are more than $100 million. A portion of sales from Spanx and Assets will go to the foundation, and details are being worked out to involve consumers in the foundation through marketing and merchandising materials, said Blakely.
“We’re thinking of an e-mail campaign to ask consumers how they would like to be involved,” Blakely said at the party. “We definitely want to include information on the foundation in the packaging of product somehow, but we haven’t yet figured out how we’ll do it.”
Branson, who is donating billions of dollars to develop energy sources that do not contribute to global warming, said, “A lot of money has come my way, and anyone in a position to pay for one’s lunch and dinner mustn’t just run around competing for the best yachts.”