Philanthropy Facts

Jon Bon Jovi runs two restaurants in New Jersey called JBJ Soul Kitchen with no prices on the menu. Guests pay whatever they can, volunteer for an hour, or simply eat — no questions asked. Everyone gets the same chef-prepared meal in the same dining room. The idea is to fight food insecurity with dignity, not charity.

(Former) Billionaire Chuck Feeney gave away over 99% of his multi-billion dollar fortune to philanthropic endeavors, such as helping underprivileged kids go to college. He is now worth a few million dollars.

Johnny Depp used to travel with his Capt. Jack Sparrow costume to make impromptu visits to sick kids in hospitals.

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

Angelina Jolie never bought Cambodia's 60,000-hectare Samlaut reserve. Cambodia's king declared it a protected forest in 1993, years before Jolie ever set foot there. Her foundation, named for her son Maddox, has funded rangers to patrol it since 2003. By her own account, some of those rangers are former poachers. The people who once hunted the forest now protect it.

A young programmer offered a homeless man the choice between $100 cash or coding lessons. Leo Grand chose the lessons, and now his first mobile app is available to download for $.99.

As of April 2010, Bill Gates had donated $36,854,000,000 in his lifetime! That's more than half of his total net worth!

Self-made millionaire Harris Rosen adopted a Florida neighborhood called Tangelo Park, cut the crime rate in half, and increased the high school graduation rate from 25% to 100% by giving everyone free daycare and all high school graduates scholarships.

In 2007, a customer kindly gave a $10,000 tip to a Pizza Hut waitress after hearing she had financial troubles which had forced her to drop out of college.

Keanu Reeves was set to earn over $200 million from The Matrix sequels. He gave $75 million of it to the special effects and costume crews. His reason? "They were the ones who made the movie." Then he bought every stunt performer a custom Harley Davidson.

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.

Paul Newman bottled salad dressing as a joke with his neighbour A.E. Hotchner. They sold the first batch to one local store. The original plan was a 50/50 split between profits and charity. They ended up giving every penny away. Newman's Own has now donated over $600 million.

Jeff Daniels grew up in Chelsea, Michigan. His grandfather once ran a car and bus garage there in the early 1900s. In 1989 the Dumb and Dumber star bought that garage and rebuilt it into a theatre that still seats 168. Then he handed the whole building to the nonprofit company he founded there. He still runs it, and he still writes and directs plays on that stage.

During the 1930’s depression, Australian businessman Sidney Myer provided Christmas dinner for 10,000 unemployed people, including a gift for every child.

Dave Chappelle spent nearly $13 million to save and rebuild a landmark in his hometown of Yellow Springs, Ohio. He bought the 1872 Union Schoolhouse - the first integrated school in the village - and turned it into a 19,000 sq ft home for public radio station WYSO. The station moved in and never looked back. "If you have the opportunity like I did, to invest in your community," he said, "then it's one of the greatest investments I've ever made."

Ronald Read worked as a gas station attendant and then a janitor in Brattleboro, Vermont. He held his coat together with safety pins. Someone once offered to pay for his meal, assuming he couldn't afford it. He died at 92 with nearly $8 million - from decades of quietly buying stocks. He left $4.8 million to the local hospital.

Chuck Feeney co-founded Duty Free Shoppers and became a billionaire. Then he secretly gave it all away. He wore a $10 Casio watch. Flew economy. He gave away $8 billion. None of the 1,000 buildings his money built bear his name. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett both credit him as their inspiration. He died at 92.

Bruce Willis's 8-year-old daughter Tallulah was selling Girl Scout cookies in Idaho in 2002 when she had an idea: send them to the troops. Willis bought 12,000 boxes. More than 8,000 pounds reached the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy in the Arabian Sea, and the captain handed the very first box to a sailor who had been a Girl Scout herself.

MacKenzie Scott received $35.6 billion in Amazon stock when she divorced Jeff Bezos in 2019. By December 2025, she had quietly given away $26.3 billion of it to 2,700+ nonprofits - no application process, no naming rights, no ceremonies. In 2025 alone, she gave more than Bezos has given in a lifetime.

Tony Hawk kept getting emails from kids who had been ticketed or even arrested just for skateboarding in the street. So he started funding places where they could skate legally instead. His foundation, now called The Skatepark Project, has helped build nearly 700 free skateparks in all 50 states. That free skatepark in your town? He probably helped pay for it.

Grace Groner bought 3 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock for $180 in 1935. She was a secretary. She held those shares for 75 years, reinvesting every dividend, while living in a one-bedroom cottage and buying clothes from rummage sales. When she died at 100, those shares were worth $7 million. She left every cent to her old college.

At his 2019 Morehouse College commencement address, billionaire Robert F. Smith announced his family would pay off the student loan debt of the entire graduating class. The gift covered all 396 seniors and ultimately totalled $34 million - including Parent PLUS loans. He told them: 'I know my class will pay this forward.'

Metallica has spent years quietly paying for trade school. Their All Within My Hands foundation funds welding and other skilled trades. The Metallica Scholars Initiative now covers 93 community colleges in all 50 states, plus Guam. Thousands of students have gone through the program, and most fans have never heard of it.

Dolly Parton's father was the smartest man she ever knew. He never learned to read or write. In 1995 she started mailing a free book every month to every child in her Tennessee county. Kids began calling her the Book Lady. Today it sends more than 3 million free books a month and has mailed over 300 million. Dolly died on August 25, 2026, at 80. The books are still going out.