Big Wallets and Big Hearts: 20 Charitable Celebrities

Sometimes it can be both frustrating and mind-blowing to think that some celebrities make millions simply off their good looks and penchant for being in front of a camera. While many celebrities have arguably worked hard to earn their millions, it can still seem a little unbalanced in the scheme of things. Which is why it is so refreshing to know that so many celebrities recognize their good fortune and choose to give back to the world and to those people who have to struggle through life. Here’s a list of some of the world’s most famous givers and do-gooders.

1. Angelina Jolie: The most high-profile celebrity philanthropist, Jolie has been a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees since 2001. She began her involvement with the group after taking an 18-day tour of refugee camps in Africa. She then traveled to Asia and donated $1 million to Afghan refugee programs. Since then, Jolie has dedicated much of her time to traveling the world in an attempt to create awareness about people who are suffering. She has met with many powerful political leaders, including Colin Powell and President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan. Aside from her travels and advocacy, Jolie has donated millions of dollars to charitable organizations all over the world. In 2006, Jolie and her partner Brad Pitt founded the Jolie Pitt Foundation. It’s said that together the couple donated over $8 million to charity in 2007 alone.
2. Oprah: The Queen of Network TV is one of the richest people, if not the richest, in show business. And Oprah doesn’t let her gigantic paycheck go in vain. She has been named the most philanthropic African American person of all time. She started in 1991 advocating for better laws to protect children who had been abused, but perhaps her most well-known charitable venture is the Oprah’s Angel Network, a $51 million foundation that provides grants to people and nonprofits trying to do good in the world. It’s estimated that Oprah has given away well over $300 million to charitable causes. In 2005, she gave $52 million away. Most recently, she started a school in South Africa called the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. She also produced a prime-time game show called “The Big Give”, where people competed to see who could do the most good with the same amount of money.
3. Bono: The lead singer of Irish band U2 has been nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize on account of his intense involvement in charitable work, which started in the mid-1980s when he joined efforts with Amnesty International. Bono’s work focuses largely on AIDS relief and education and poverty. He was an integral player in the Live 8 concert, which raised money for AIDS, and he also helped found the hugely successful ONE Campaign, a celebrity-backed effort to fight AIDS and worldwide poverty. He also co-founded the Product Red Initiative, which partners with national retailers to raise money for AIDS. On Valentine’s Day 2008, Bono held a charity auction that raised $42 million for the Global Fund of the United Nations Foundation, which works to fight AIDS in Africa. Aside from the millions of dollars Bono has helped raise, he speaks frequently and passionately about his work all over the world.
4. Brad Pitt: Pitt’s domestic partnering with Angelina Jolie led to more than just the conception or adoption of six children. It seems her philanthropic bug rubbed off on him big time. Through their foundation, Pitt gives millions of dollars away to international and domestic causes. His most publicized and biggest effort to date is the recent “Make It Right” project, which will build 150 houses in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward for people displaced by Hurricane Katrina. He has given at least $5 million of his own money toward the effort. He’s also co-founded the nonprofit advocacy group Not on Our Watch with several other celebrities. The organization raises awareness about the crisis in Darfur.
5. Paul McCartney: Paul McCartney, the former Beatle, supports a number of charities that do good work for children, animals and the environment. But his most public affiliation is through the Adopt a Minefield organization, to which he and former wife Heather Mills donated $2 million in 2005. Mills also does advocacy work for his first wife’s pet cause PETA. In 2005, McCartney also got involved with the Harp Seals group and McCartney spoke out passionately against seal hunting in Canada.
6. Bill and Melinda Gates: Famous for founding Microsoft, one of the most influential technology companies of all time, Bill Gates is one of the world’s richest people. Now he and his wife Melinda preside over the world’s largest charitable foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which was founded in 2000. With an endowment of about $40 billion, the Foundation gives more than $1.5 billion each year to worldwide public health programs and programs that assist developing countries. In the area of global health, the Gates’ focus largely on grants to vaccination programs and AIDS research. They also give to programs that aim to alleviate world poverty. In 2004, the foundation gave $3 million to assist with the aftermath of the Indian Ocean Earthquake.
7. Steven Spielberg: Steven Spielberg’s net worth is $2.6 billion and of that he’s donated $100 million to charity efforts. Percentage-wise he falls way behind givers like Gates, but taken as a raw figure he’s one of the biggest Hollywood philanthropists on the scene. Through his foundation, The Righteous Persons Foundation, Spielberg has given over $70 million to Jewish causes in the United States, though he’s also given $1 million to help with relief efforts in Israel. Most of the money funneled through the charity comes from Spielberg’s profits off of his Academy Award winning movie Schindler’s List. Aside from Spielberg’s advocacy for the Jewish community, he also donated $1.5 million to help with the relief efforts after the tsunami.
8. Sandra Bullock: Sandra Bullock has faded a bit from the blockbuster movie scene in recent years, but she still extremely active in her philanthropic activities. One of Bullock’s favorite charities is the American Red Cross. She’s written two $1 million checks to them – one after the Sept. 11 attacks and one after the tsunami. Aside from her check-writing prowess, however, Bullock is also a hands-on philanthropist. Following Hurricane Katrina, the part-time, Austin, Texas resident was a constant presence at the Austin Convention Center trying to help the evacuees. She also given some significant cash to the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders.
9. Michael Bloomberg: The Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, may not be a star in the traditional sense, but he is definitely a household name. And his giving patterns are incredible. In 2007, he gave away $205 million dollars to New York arts, education, public health, and social services. Bloomberg traditionally has donated privately and anonymously and likes to spread his wealth around to different issue areas, though it’s also known that he gave a pretty penny to the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation. He’s also purchased two town houses on Manhattan’s Upper East Side to house his new foundation.
10. George Clooney: George Clooney co-founded the charity Not on Our Watch with several other Hollywood leading men, like Matt Damon and Brad Pitt. The charity is aimed to help stop the genocide in Darfur and the militia rule in Burma. But while many people may sign the title “co-founder” Clooney has really been the one to take the reins. He travels and speaks frequently about the Darfur atrocities. In 2006, Clooney and his newspaper columnist father snuck cameras into the Darfur region to capture firsthand what was happening. Though Clooney has donated a lot of money to relief efforts in the region, he has also lost a lot of shoe leather in his quest to raise awareness. Aside from Darfur, Clooney is a UN Messenger of Peace and sits on the board of trustees at the United Way.
11. Barbara Streisand: Barbara Streisand is not only a great singer and a highly politically-charged star (backing Hillary Clinton this election), but she is also a terrific example of celebrities putting their wealth to good use. The singer has her own foundation that dishes out grants to a variety of causes, like the Natural Resources Defense Council, the National Breast Cancer Coalition Fund, and the Center for Public Integrity. Babs’ main issues seem to be politics, civil rights, the environment and women’s health. In 2006 alone, Streisand gave out almost $12 million to these causes, and if you take the foundation’s cumulative giving since its inception in 1986 then Streisand has given well over $30 million of her fortune to charity. Streisand does not fund local charities, only national organizations focusing on the issues mentioned above, as well as children’s issues and AIDS. Streisand also does make exceptions for local L.A. children’s charities.
12. Rosie O’Donnell: Most of the press about Rosie O’Donnell is directed toward her brash personality. But something many people don’t know is that the steel-willed woman has a very soft spot. While O’Donnell focuses mainly on children’s issues, she does spread her money around. In 2006, she personally donated over $5 million, mostly all toward Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in both Louisiana and Texas. But O’Donnell does have her own charity, called For All Kids, which focuses on helping children born into poverty. Donnell has donated over $53 million to charity, and the foundation has handed out more than $22 million in grants to over 900 nonprofits. In 2003, she also co-founded Rosie’s Broadway Kids, a nonprofit that helps low-income kids in New York City get free music and dance lessons. She also raises money for various gay and lesbian civil rights groups.
13. Tiger Woods: Tiger Woods is quite possibly the best golfer to ever live. And that distinction, along with all of the tournament wins, has given him quite the savings account. But Woods has been a perfect steward with his millions, founding at least seven charitable programs through the Tiger Woods Foundation, which he started in 1996 with his father Earl Woods. In 2006, Woods gave $9.5 million out of his pocket toward children’s education, health, and welfare issues. The Tiger Woods Learning Center began in 2006 as an afterschool program to help kids of all ages find their true potential by allowing the kids to create their curriculum. Woods’ foundation deals solely with issues surrounding childhood education.
14. Martha Stewart: This queen of crafty home improvements is out to improve peoples’ lives in addition to improving their living rooms. In 2006, Stewart gave $5 million to establish the Martha Stewart Center for Living at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York, which “serves to promote and facilitate access to health care resources for older adults and to enhance the public perception of aging.” The center provides medical care, caregiver resources, and educational opportunities for older adults. On top of this big gift, Stewart supports other healthcare charities, such as the St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. She also gives to Heifer International and Dogs Deserve Better, a nonprofit that advocates against the chaining of dogs.
15. Nicholas Cage: Nicholas Cage is not a loud philanthropist. In fact, judging by the low-brow movies he chooses to star in, one might think philanthropy would be furthest from his mind. But in fact he doles out quite the sum for charitable causes. In 2006, he gave $2 million to an Amnesty International fund to help out child soldiers. During the same year, he also starred in a Montblanc commercial and donated his entire salary from that job to < a href= http://www.healthebay.org/>Heal the Bay, a nonprofit dedicated to keeping the coastal waters of Southern California clean and healthy.
16. Andre Agassi: Tennis legend Andre Agassi has been involved in many charitable works throughout his career, and, like many philanthropic-minded stars, even has his own foundation, the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation, which he founded in 1994. In 2006, he donated almost $1.1 million to that foundation, which assists disadvantaged youth in Agassi’s hometown of Las Vegas. Not surprisingly, the foundation focuses on helping children reach their potential through different athletic endeavors. Agassi also gives money to help children who are abused and neglected and those who have developmental issues or are handicapped, started a charter school in Las Vegas, and is a co-founder of Athletes for Hope, an organization that assists and encourages athletes to get involved in charity work.
17. Lance Armstrong: Lance Armstrong has won the Tour de France seven times, and he’s survived testicular cancer. Some might say he’s a pretty disciplined guy. But he’s also a pretty disciplined guy when it comes to charity. Armstrong founded the Lance Armstrong Foundation in Austin, Texas in 1997, which is dedicated to raising money for cancer research and advocacy. Over the years, Armstrong has donated millions to the foundation, including a $1.5 million donation in 2004 and a $500,000 donation in 2006. But given his active nature, one would expect Armstrong to bring his cause to a whole new level, which he does by working solely on developing better legislation and support for cancer research.
18. Denzel Washington: Denzel Washington is one of Hollywood’s most dapper men and has even won an Oscar. He’s also a pretty charitable fellow, donating $1 million in 2006 to Save Africa’s Children, an organization dedicated to helping orphaned and vulnerable children in Africa. According to reports, there are more than 17 million children orphaned in Africa because they lost a parent to AIDS. But his charity work doesn’t stop there. He is also a spokesperson for the Boys & Girls Club and works through the Fisher House Foundation, which provides a place to live for wounded soldier. Washington visits the soldiers regularly and has also made a significant contribution to the charity. He is also a lifetime founding member of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund.
19. David Geffen: David Geffen, co-founder of Dreamworks Studios is one of the richest people in America, worth over $4 billion. But he does give back some of that dough to charity, mostly to his own foundation, The David Geffen Foundation. In 1997, he dumped more than $3.5 million into the charity, which gave away almost $5 million that year. Through the 1990s, the foundation dispensed over $25 million to AIDS, higher education, and Jewish causes. In 2006, Geffen gave $1.6 million to the charity. It’s said to be one of the most active celebrity foundations in Hollywood.
20. Madonna: One of Hollywood’s more controversial philanthropists, Madonna gives most of her money and time largely to two causes: Kabbalah, the ancient practice of Jewish mysticism, and Malawi orphans. Madge underwent a lot of criticism when she adopted a boy from Malawi, but since then she has founded her own charity called Raising Malawi, which aims to help the orphans in that country. Madonna also has supported multiple charities throughout her career, including, the Afghanistan Relief Organization, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and the American Foundation for AIDS Research.

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