Charity Facts

Boxing Day is named so because it was the day that "Christmas boxes" were given to the more needy.

In 2006, the CEO of Whole Foods reduced his salary to $1 a year, donated his entire portfolio to charity, and set up a $100,000 fund for staff facing personal problems.

Between 2007 and 2012, Bill Gates gave away $28 billion; saving 6 million lives.

J.K. Rowling became the first person to fall off the Forbes billionaire list primarily due to charitable giving, donating over $160 million to causes including children's welfare and multiple sclerosis research.

Shakira has been making music for over 35 years, can play guitar, drums, percussion, and harmonica, speaks at least 5 languages fluently (Spanish, English, Portuguese, Italian, and French), founded the Pies Descalzos Foundation in 1997, and has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2003.

All Sikh temples serve free meals for all visitors, regardless of religion, race, or class.

John F. Kennedy never kept a single government paycheck in his entire political career. Not as a congressman. Not as a senator. Not as president. His presidential salary alone was $100,000 a year — about $1 million today — and he donated every cent to charity, including the United Negro College Fund and the Boy Scouts.

Keanu Reeves quietly donated millions to children's hospitals and cancer research throughout his career, rarely publicizing his contributions. He also devoted years to supporting his sister Kim during her decade-long battle with leukemia, which she overcame in the early 2000s.

George Lucas owned 100% of Lucasfilm. When he sold it to Disney for $4.05 billion in 2012, every single dollar went straight to him. He gave almost all of it away to education — calling it "the key to the survival of the human race." He'd pledged to do it two years before the deal even existed.

Jeremy Clarkson once published his bank account number and sort code to prove that the information couldn't be used to steal money. Someone used it to set up a monthly direct debit from his bank account to a charity.

Hockey player Jarome Iginla donates $2,000 to the children’s charity Kidsport for every goal he scores. Since 2000 it has added up to more than $700,000.

Newman’s Own foods donates 100% of its post tax profits to charity. As of June 2012 these donations have exceeded 330 million dollars.

Carlos Vasquez, a dry cleaner in New York, has a sign outside his shop that reads: If you are unemployed and need an outfit clean for an interview, we will clean it for free.

Boxer Wladimir Klitshko auctioned his Olympic gold medal to raise money for underprivileged Ukrainian children. He raised $1,000,000. The buyer immediately returned the medal to Wladimir as he wanted it to remain in the Klitschko family.

Alan Naiman was a Washington state social worker who earned $67,200 a year. He wore shoes held together with duct tape, bought his clothes at the grocery store, and bragged about going entire days without spending a cent. When he died at 63, his coworkers discovered he had quietly amassed nearly $11 million and left most of it to children's charities.