Giving Back 30 Committee:
Special thanks to our committee members who reviewed our findings to ensure that we followed commonly accepted reporting practices and that we were consistent in our reporting:
- Crystal Allene Cook
Program Manager for See Jane - Scott A. Edelman, co-chair of
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's Media and Entertainment
Practice - Stacy Mann, Director of Marketing Programs for Network for Good
- Paul G Schervish, Director of the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy (CWP) at Boston College; and Ken Shropshire, Professor and Director, Wharton Sports Business Initiative
The Giving Back 30
List of Largest Charitable Donations by Celebrities in 2006
As reported in People magazine, The Giving Back Fund has compiled a list of the celebrities who have made the largest personal public donations to charity in 2006.
Encouragement-by-example is the main reason for the Giving Back 30 list,” says Marc Pollick, President of The Giving Back Fund. “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.”
| Ranking | Donor | Amount Donated | Pledged Recipients |
| 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 | Barbra 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 and ShirleyBoone |
$3,000,000 | Pepperdine University for the Graduate School of Education and Psychology Center for the Family |
| 10 | 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 and 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 Dwayne "the Rock" and Dany |
| 13 | Garcia Johnson |
$2,000,000 | University of Miami to name new Alumni Center living room |
| 14 | Paul McCartney |
$2,000,000 | Adopt-a-Minefield |
| 15 | 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
|
$1,000,000 | University of Virginia to support the McIntire School of Commerce, the Virginia Athletics Foundation, Children’s Hospital, a scholarship fund for African American students, the Young Alumni Council, and to challenge young alumni to participate in the capital campaign |
| 21 | Bob Barker | $1,000,000 | Georgetown University to endow a fund at its law school that will focus on the study of animal rights |
| 22 | Gloria Estefan | $1,000,000 |
Miami Paralysis Project |
| 23 | Dr. Phil and Robin McGraw |
$1,000,000 | Dr. Phil Foundation |
| 24 | George Steinbrenner and family |
$1,000,000 | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for Boshamer Stadium for baseball |
| 25 | Tony Stewart | $1,000,000 | Victory Junction Gang Camp |
| 26 | 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 |
| 29 | Dolly Parton | $500,000 | Fort Sanders Medical Center |
| 30 | Elizabeth Taylor |
$500,000 | New Orleans AIDS Task Force to purchase mobile medical unit for AIDS sufferers in New Orleans |
- To honor the most charitable of individuals in the sports and entertainment communities
- To encourage increased giving within the sports and entertainment communities
- To encourage increased transparency in sports and entertainment philanthropy
To compile the most accurate ratings, we culled media reports of charitable giving by sports and entertainment professionals. We also reached out to more than 250 publicists, attorneys, agents, agencies, and managers for information about their clients, sent inquiries to more than 150 charities known for their celebrity associations, and contacted the major sports leagues.
Using this data, we ranked the celebrities by what they had donated and pledged in the past year. We did not calculate their giving as a percentage of their income since we feel any estimate of income would be too speculative.
We did not include grants made by foundations so as to avoid counting them twice --- once when the donor gave money to a foundation and again when the donor decided on a beneficiary for that money. In the case of David Geffen, the amount stated is the amount he donated to his private foundation in 2006. Previous gifts from his self-funded foundation include a 2002 $200 million grant to the UCLA Medical School.
In 2006, George Lucas' Lucasfilm Foundation granted $175-million to USC to establish a new film school. We could not determine how much of that gift was donated by Mr. Lucas in 2006 and so it is not included. Similarly, Paul Newman donates 100% of his Newman’s Own profits to charity but we were unable to determine a dollar amount for 2006. Newman’s Own’s web site indicates that more than $200 million has been donated by Paul Newman and the Newman’s Own Foundation since l982.
We confirmed information in the list through at least one source other than a media report. If a charity posted the donation on its website we considered that a confirmation. Inclusion in the Slate 60 compiled by the Chronicle of Philanthropy was considered adequate in that they conducted their own research and confirmation.
Only one celebrity who we identified as qualified to be in the list according to media reports requested not to be included. We did honor his request. Undoubtedly, we missed some donors because they chose to have their gifts remain confidential, or their advisors chose not to forward on our request.
In addition, many celebrities choose to redirect payments for their performances to charities and some, most notably Mr. Agassi, have agreements with corporations in which a corporate donation to their charity is often a prerequisite for a continued relationship. We did not report on these donations because there is no reliable source to confirm these types of confidential agreements.
Several individuals donated significant private collections to museums last year but they were not included in the list because we could not confirm the value of their gifts.
Robert DeNiro donated more than 3,000 of his own costume items and props to the University Of Texas' Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center. Sylvester Stallone donated memorabilia from the first five "Rocky" films to the Smithsonian Institute and Donald Trump donated 436 acres of open space to New York State to create a park.
Katrina and Tsunami Relief Efforts
It is important to note that many individuals not on the list this year gave six, seven, or even eight figure contributions to Katrina relief and Tsunami relief efforts last year. Furthermore, multi-year pledges are only included if they were pledged in 2006 so donors may be fulfilling previous pledges without recognition in the list.
The Giving Back Fund included only those gifts donors made in 2006 to groups classified as charities or foundations under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The Giving Back Fund formed a committee of qualified experts to review our findings to help ensure that we were consistent in our reporting.
In subsequent years, we hope that donors will become more comfortable sharing information about their charitable contributions. We believe this information will both inspire others to greater charitable efforts and encourage transparency in sports and entertainment philanthropy.
Contact Us
To inform us of a donation or pledge by a celebrity in 2007, please email us at: GivingBack30@givingback.org