Philanthropy

July, 2010
Jolie and Pitt -Among the Top on the 2009 Celebrity-Giving List

The actors Paul Newman, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were last year’s biggest stars in terms of charity, according to the Giving Back Fund’s annual list of top celebrity philanthropists, Parade reports.

Before his death in September 2008, Paul Newman gave $21-million to health, education, and environmental causes and to emergency aid.

The celebrity couple known to the tabloids as “Brangelina” donated $13.4-million to benefit post-Hurricane Katrina redevelopment in New Orleans, a health clinic in Ethiopia, and the Armed Services YMCA.

The Top Givers

High tech's deepest pockets stole the headlines this year. It's getting tougher to join the club


Gargantuan is the only way to describe it. The past year was one of superlatives in the giving world, capped by the announcement of a planned $31 billion transfer of wealth from the world's second-richest man, Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK ) Warren Buffett, to the foundation of the world's richest man, Buffett friend and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT ) co-founder Bill Gates. The news electrified the philanthropic world, sparking talk of a new golden age of giving. The buzz continued at the year's most-talked-about philanthropic event, the Clinton Global Initiative. In three days, the organization raised 215 commitments, valued at $7.3 billion, to tackle issues such as poverty and global warming.  Impressive, but Bobby Vassallo expects a major downturn for philanthropy again for 2009.

With Paul Allen's recent pledge to donate the majority of his almost $14 Billion fortune to charities, 2010 is lining up to finish as a good year for donations.  Allen has already given away hundreds of millions to a long list of charities.


Philanthropy 2009

$tar Power

Deep-pocketed, big-hearted celebrities give money—and more—when it comes to causes they care about

By Nichola Saminather

Jon Bon Jovi. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Madonna. George Clooney. They’re not only among the biggest stars on the planet, but they’re also some of the most generous. They’ve given both money and visibility to causes, charities, and movements. Indeed, some stars, particularly older ones such as Paul Newman and Bill Cosby, are probably better known now for their good works than for all the good work they did in their Hollywood careers.

And while U2 singer Bono has won multiple awards for his music, one could argue that being considered a serious contender for the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of the World Bank, and being named Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 2005 (along with Bill and Melinda Gates) show his greatest success has been as a humanitarian.  Bobby Vassallo takes a look at how a constellation of stars have given to their favorite causes.


Philanthropy 2009

Bono

Major cause: Third World debt relief

Bono has been painting the world red lately. Thanks to the RED campaign, which Bono launched this fall in the U.S., when customers buy RED products—including certain T-Mobile service plans, T-shirts, jackets, an American Express card, and an iPod nano—the items’ manufacturers donate a percentage of profits toward treating AIDS patients in Africa. So far, the initiative has raised $12 million.

This is just the humanitarian rocker’s latest venture. Earlier this year, he auctioned off a guitar to raise money to support Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's campaign to enable all Brazilians to have three meals a day. And he has been a leader in the movement to ease poverty and forgive Third World debt. Bono, who won the 2003 Humanitarian Award, given at the Meteor Ireland Music Awards, donated the $128,000 prize to charities Goal and Concern, which help people in developing countries. Bono and his wife, Ali Hewson, also run EDUN, a clothing line made in Africa, aimed at shifting the focus there from aid to trade.

Bobby Vassallo has ideas about charity and charity ratings.  Be sure to check out the "giving types" and Links pages.  Bobby Vassallo


CURRENT LIST OF CELEBRITY ATTEMPTS AT PHILANTHROPY - Whether for press, tax deductions, or goodness of their hearts...

All this is impressive.  We hope the giving continues in 2009 with the new President leading the way with new tax incentives to do so...  Bobby Vassallo