Celebs Who Used Their Fame To Help Others

The following article references sexual assault.

Charitable activity is a big deal among the rich and famous, and no gift of time or money draws as much attention as that of celebrities. High-profile individuals are inspired to donate their time and money to charity for a variety of reasons. Some see it as a civic or moral duty. Others use charitable gifts as a way to offset the tax burden on heavy profits. Some even view it as reputation rehab or penance for wrongs they have committed. Whatever the motive and method, and no matter what the cause, the result is usually the same: notoriety brings in the big bucks, which means a celebrity's involvement can do wonders for nonprofit and NGO fundraising.

Some of the prominent causes drawing celebrity involvement are famine, health crises, human rights violations, economic inequity, gender inequity, and lack of access to fundamentals like clean water, sanitation, healthy food, and education. We looked into some of the most high-profile philanthropists in Hollywood and beyond, who are known to be generous with their time, attention, and money. To whom much is given, much is expected, and these stars seem to take that adage to heart.

It wasn't just charitable activity surrounding AIDS that saw a meteoric rise in 1985. The recording of USA for Africa's "We Are the World" in early 1985 kicked off a year of memorable charitable music events. Quincy Jones produced a track written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson and enlisted the hottest pop stars of the day to contribute their vocals, with all proceeds going toward famine relief in Africa. Rolling Stone chronicled every last minute of the historic recording session, detailing every participant's role.

In July, the 16-hour Live Aid concert produced by Bob Geldof and Midge Urea was organized to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia. As Britannica recounted, the concert, which brought in millions of dollars, was a simulcast in London's Wembley Stadium and Philadelphia's JFK Stadium to 1.5 billion viewers. The list of performers was a veritable who's who of English-speaking rock and roll. If you have FOMO over Live Aid, fear not. There is a Live Aid YouTube channel with hours of performance videos from the concert.

That same year, as History recalled, Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp announced they would be producing a concert called Farm Aid that September to benefit American farmers. Farm Aid performers included a wide variety of country, folk, rock, and blues artists. Since that first benefit concert in 1985, Farm Aid has passed tens of millions of dollars raised on to small farmers, while promoting sustainability and buying local produce and meat.

Founded in 1994 as the William H. Gates Foundation, with a phenomenally large gift of $94 million, the charitable machine of Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda Gates, is now known as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The couple writes on their website, "We wake up every day determined to use our resources to create a world where everyone has the opportunity to lead a healthy and productive life. Most importantly, we believe this: All lives have equal value. That's why we made the decision to donate our wealth from Microsoft to help others."

The foundation's Strategic Investment Fund provides grants to organizations that provide direct support to the myriad of causes championed by the foundation, which has to date invested billions of dollars in charities around the globe. Global health initiatives, with a particular focus on finding an effective vaccine for AIDS and other methods of AIDS prevention, lead the charge of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the foundation jumped into action, offering resources for vaccine development and distribution to help the vaccine reach the remote corners of the world. The foundation also focuses on global gender equality as both an economic and health issue.

While widespread, the foundation's work is not solely global; they also do a lot of work to eradicate poverty and social/educational barriers right here in the United States.

As noted on the Water.org site, Matt Damon has made it his mission to try to solve water supply issues around the world. While spending time in a Zambian village while filming a movie, he witnessed the perils of lack of access to clean and safe water firsthand. As Damon said at the Clinton Global Initiative in 2014 (via LiveScience), "You cannot solve poverty without solving water and sanitation."

Damon started the organization H20 Africa for this purpose, but when he met Water Partners International's founder Gary White, they realized they could do much more together than apart. Thus, Water.org was born of a merger between the two organizations. In addition to collecting/allocating donations and facilitating financial investments from banks, Water.org started a sister organization: an investment program called Water Equity, whereby investors provide capital to institutions that increase access to water and sanitation.

Damon also co-founded Not On Our Watch, an organization raising awareness of the human rights violations and atrocities occurring around the world, with George Clooney. The organization's website states its missions as, "Drawing on the powerful voice of citizen artists, activists, and cultural leaders, our mission is to generate lifesaving humanitarian assistance and protection for the vulnerable, marginalized, and displaced." Damon told AskMen that it is important for his children to see and understand the economic struggles around the world, adding, "The experience of walking through it and being in it, and seeing that, it's really profound for American kids of all stripes."

Morgan Fairchild has become a well-known source of news on Twitter and a frequent dabbler in online activism. While her online presence has taken center stage over the last few years, Fairchild is no mere "slacktivist." Her charitable involvement and activism began in the 1980s, when she was gracing television screens on Falcon Crest. In 1988, she told the Los Angeles Times, "Before I got involved, I never thought anyone would give a damn about what I thought. I'm a television actor — who would care? Then I found out that I could help focus attention to an issue in a positive way. That was something I was blind to before."

The actor's website highlights some of her charitable work, including animal welfare causes, AIDS charity, work to fight poverty, the Make a Wish Foundation, LGBT causes, aid for at-risk youth, natural disaster relief, Doctors without Borders, and other domestic and international humanitarian causes.

The Daily Beast deemed Fairchild a "badass foreign policy wonk, and Town and Country called her an "unlikely Twitter hero" thanks to her frequent sharing of political news, adding, "Considering the breadth of her interests—you can't visit her feed without learning about Syria as well as cats available for adoption—it might not be long before some fans know her as the news junkie who just so happened to work as an actress on the side."

Bono is the cofounder of ONE and (RED), a pair of organizations created to fight poverty and AIDS. As Bono said at a TED Conference in 2013, the ONE campaign hopes to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030, a goal the organization is working toward through lobbying, grassroots efforts, and charitable funding. (RED)'s function is raising awareness using public and corporate partnerships to fight AIDS and other preventable diseases in Africa.

The U2 singer also founded The Rise Fund, and as noted on the ONE website, this organization invests in companies that drive "measurable, positive social change and environmental change in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals." According to Look to the Stars, Bono's charitable inspiration dates all the way back to when he saw The Secret Policeman's Ball in 1979. He was involved in the planning of Live Aid in 1985, recruiting other artists to participate, and continued active charitable involvement from that point forward. Along with Bill and Melinda Gates, Bono was named TIME's person of the year in 2005 for his philanthropic efforts.

Miley Cyrus founded the Happy Hippie Foundation in 2014 "to fight injustice facing LGBT youth, homeless youth, and other vulnerable populations," according to the organization's site. The foundation provides support, education, and employment opportunities to these often-rejected populations, and their manifesto points toward stopping judgment of others. "We know that the people sleeping on the sidewalk could have been us or our closest friends if our lives were just a little bit different," it reads. "And the people we see sleeping on the sidewalk COULD be our friends if we gave them the chance."

In a 2008 TIME piece, Cyrus urged people to get involved with helping their communities early. "If you pick up a guitar when you're 8, you're really good at it by the time you're 20. It's the same with giving back," she said. "My family has been visiting Kentucky coal-mine towns since I was little. We take clothes, gifts and school supplies. It's an eye opener for me, seeing families here in America living in Third World conditions. And it makes me want to make a difference ... The truth is, it's never too early to get involved. Someday today's kids will be running for President. Now is our prep time. We need to get some practice in before we save the world."

Sounds like a good plan to us! Let's all get out there and practice being the best humans we can be.