Monday, December 1, 2008

Oprah Tops Celebrity Philanthropy A-List

A list of the 30 largest public donations made by celebrities in the past year puts Oprah in the top spot.

The Giving Back Fund, which encourages and advises on celebrity philanthropy, compiles its list each year. President Marc Pollick said, “Encouragement-by-example is the main reason for the Giving Back 30 list.”

Oprah gave $58.3 million to Oprah’s Angel Network and her recently-opened Leadership Academy.

Of the other celebrities high on the list, Barbra Streisand was in fourth spot, having given $11.75 million through her Streisand Foundation.

Tiger Woods took fifth place, giving $9.5 million to organisations including the Tiger Woods Learning Center funded by the Tiger Woods Foundation.

Giving Back’s Marc Pollick praised an increasing trend in celebrity donations, saying, “Ten years ago when Slate magazine first published the Slate 60 reporting on the most generous American philanthropists, the last donor on their list gave $5 million. This year the last donor donated $30 million to charity. This is the type of growth we are hoping to inspire within the sports and entertainment community. One cannot help but be influenced by the generosity of his or her peers.”

The full list and information about how it was compiled can be found at givingback.org. This site has previously reported on many of the list’s featured celebrities and their donations; a comprehensively linked version of the list appears below:

Position Celebrity Donation Cause(s)
1 Oprah Winfrey $58,300,000 Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy, Oprah’s Angel Network, and other groups
2 Geoffrey Beene $44,000,000 (bequest) Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
3 Jack and Marie Lord $40,000,000 (bequest) Hawaii Community Foundation
4 Barbra Streisand $11,750,000 Streisand Foundation, numerous civil liberties, environmental, and civil rights organizations “dedicated to democratic values”
5 Tiger Woods $9,500,000 Tiger Woods Learning Center, Earl D. Woods Sr. Scholarship Fund, and other Tiger Woods Foundation programs
6 Rosie O’Donnell $5,700,000 Katrina Relief efforts including Renaissance Village (a temporary shelter for Katrina victims), day care centers, a rehabilitation center in San Antonio, and a Habitat For Humanity sub division in Baton Rouge
7 Martha Stewart $5,000,000 New York’s Mt. Sinai Hospital for a center on healthy aging
8 Carmelo Anthony $4,282,000 CAF Youth Center in Baltimore, AAU Basketball, Syracuse University Recreational Center, and other charities
9 Pat Boone & Shirley Boone $3,000,000 Pepperdine University for the Graduate School of Education and Psychology Center for the Family
9 LeRoy Neiman $3,000,000 The School of the Art Institute of Chicago to support a Master’s class in figure drawing
11 Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt $2,415,000 School and Community Center in Swakopmund in Namibia, Daniel Pearl Foundation, Namibian hospitals, Doctors Without Borders, Global Action for Children and others
12 Nicolas Cage $2,000,000 Amnesty International for a fund to help child soldiers
12 Dwayne Johnson (“The Rock”) and Dany Garcia Johnson $2,000,000 University of Miami to name new Alumni Center living room
12 Paul McCartney $2,000,000 Adopt-A-Minefield
12 Arnold Palmer $2,000,000 Pledged to the Arnold Palmer Foundation ultimately to benefit the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute
16 David Geffen $1,600,000 David Geffen Foundation
17 Susan Saint James and Dick Ebersol $1,300,000 The Gunnery to help pay for a new dormitory in memory of their son Teddy killed in a plane crash
18 Jeffrey and Marilyn Katzenberg $1,250,000 Boston University to renovate facilities
19 Andre Agassi $1,070,000 Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation
20 Tiki and Ronde Barber and family $1,000,000 University of Virginia to support the McIntire School of Commerce, the Virginia Athletics Foundation, Childrens Hospital, a scholarship fund for African-American students, the Young Alumni Council, and to challenge young alumni to participate in the capital campaign
20 Bob Barker $1,000,000 Georgetown University to endow a fund at its law school that will focus on the study of animal rights
20 Gloria Estefan $1,000,000 Miami Paralysis Project
20 Dr. Phil McGraw & Robin McGraw $1,000,000 Dr. Phil Foundation
20 George Steinbrenner & family $1,000,000 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for Boshamer Stadium for baseball
20 Tony Stewart $1,000,000 Victory Junction Gang Camp
20 Denzel Washington $1,000,000 Save Africa’s Children
27 Mike Sexton $560,000 Special Olympics, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis, Children, Inc., Wounded Warrior Project, Ohio State University, and other charities
28 Lance Armstrong $500,000 Lance Armstrong Foundation
28 Dolly Parton $500,000 Fort Sanders Medical Center
28 Elizabeth Taylor $500,000 New Orleans AIDS Task Force to purchase mobile medical unit for AIDS sufferers in New Orleans

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