The 12-12-12 benefit concert at Madison Square Garden last week has raised about $50 million for people affected by Hurricane Sandy, the producers announced on Tuesday night. They said that they expected more money to flow in over the coming weeks from the sales of albums, merchandise and more donations, and that the first $50 million in aid would be distributed immediately.
With a lineup featuring stars like Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton and Paul McCartney, the event raised more than was collected during the Concert for New York, a similar show staged by the same producers after the Sept. 11 attacks. (That show brought in $35 million - adjusted for inflation, the equivalent of about $45 million today.)
But the benefit's tally fell short of other recent telethon-style fund-raisers, like the Hope for Haiti concert that was broadcast on MTV in January 2010, which raised about $61 million. It also did not exceed the $55 million gathered in 1985 (about $118 million in 2012 dollars) for famine victims at the Live Aid concerts, according to BBC news. Those concerts drew tens of thousands of fans to stadiums in London and Philadelphia.
David Saltzman, the executive director of the Robin Hood Foundation, said the money would be distributed to about 140 groups that are providing aid to people whose homes and businesses were destroyed when Hurricane Sandy swept through the region in late October. Among other things, those groups have been providing hot meals to people in devastated areas, legal and psychological counseling to storm victims, cash grants to college students unable to pay their bills and home furnishings to people whose houses were destroyed.
“Our hope is that Robin Hood will continue to put boots on the ground in the hardest hit communities, to get people what they need now,†Mr. Saltzman said.
The concert was marred by reports that thousands of tickets were resold for a profit on StubHub, the ticket resale site. StubHub donated its fees from these sales - about $1 million - to the Robin Hood Relief Fund, but it appears most of the profits from those secondary sales went into the pockets of professional ticket brokers and individuals, rather than to the charity, said Glenn Lehrman, a StubHub spokesman.
Since Stubhub charges a 25 percent fee, the total cost of the tickets sold on the resale site is estimated to be about $4 million. The tickets were listed for many times their face value, prompting some calls in Albany for a ban on reselling tickets to charitable events.
The large number of tickets that were resold for profit also drew fire from the concert's producers - James Dolan, the executive chairman of the Madison Square Garden Company; John Syk es, the president of Clear Channel Entertainment Enterprises; and the filmmaker Harvey Weinstein.
Mr. Saltzman said about $30 million of the total had come from the initial sale of 13,500 tickets and donations from corporate sponsors, chief among them J.P. Morgan Chase & Company, which also underwrote the production costs.
The rest of the proceeds - some $20 million - flowed in from other sources: donations given over the telephone, online donations to Robin Hood and the sale of merchandise.
The charity is also receiving money from the sale of an album of the concert, which has been distributed by Columbia Records. That recording was listed at No. 3 on the iTunes album chart on Tuesday afternoon.
Funds are also being raised through an auction of memorabilia from the show, mostly instruments and clothing signed by the celebrities who took part. A Fender bass autographed by Mr. McCartney, Mr. Springsteen, Roger Daltrey and several other rock figures was being auctioned for more than $40,000. The drumsticks used by Dave Grohl during his appearance are being sold for more than $6,000.
This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: December 19, 2012
A previous version of this post misspelled the name of a StubHub spokesman. It is Glenn Lehrman, not Glen Lehrman.
