Hurricane Helene ravaged Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee two weeks ago, and so many communities are still digging out of that catastrophe. Dolly Parton pledged $1 million to Helene relief, and many country stars are pulling together a benefit concert. Then on Wednesday, as Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida, Taylor Swift decided to once again pony up a huge sum from her personal fortune: $5 million to Feeding America and other hurricane relief efforts.
Taylor Swift has donated a large sum in effort to lend a hand to those recovering from the impact of Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.
On Wednesday, Oct. 9, Feeding America shared a statement on Instagram thanking the star for her generous contribution.
“We’re incredibly grateful to Taylor Swift for her generous $5 million donation to Hurricane Helene and Milton relief efforts. This contribution will help communities rebuild and recover, providing essential food, clean water and supplies to people affected by these devastating storms,” Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, the CEO of Feeding America wrote in a statement.
The statement continued, “Together, we can make a real impact in supporting families as they navigate the challenges ahead. Thank you, Taylor, for standing with us in the movement to end hunger and for helping communities in need.”
In the caption section, Feeding American thanked Swift, 34, “for standing with us and the movement to end hunger and helping communities in need in the wake of #HurricaneHelene and #HurricaneMilton. Together, we can make a real impact in supporting families as they navigate the challenges ahead.” They also encouraged readers to “join Taylor if you’re able to” and donate.
People always talk about Taylor’s capitalism and it’s true, she’s a red-blooded American capitalist. But people rarely talk about how she pays her people fairly and gives huge, six-figure bonuses to everyone involved in Swift Inc. They also don’t talk about this kind of charitable giving as much as they should – in a country where so many CEOs behave recklessly, where so many rich, privileged people close their wallets in national disasters, Taylor is usually one of the first ones to make these kinds of huge donations. Also notable: Taylor was supposed to restart her Eras Tour in Florida next week, in Miami. I kind of wonder if she will have to reschedule, given the devastation from Hurricane Milton.
You can go to Feeding America’s donation page here, and the American Red Cross’s disaster relief resource page here.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.
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- Sydney, AUSTRALIA – Taylor Swift takes The Eras Tour 2024 overseas as she performs at Sydney Accor Stadium in Sydney,Australia. Pictured: Taylor Swift BACKGRID USA 23 FEBRUARY 2024 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- New York, NY – Taylor Swift arrives in style at Electric Lady Studios in New York for the MTV VMAs 2024 afterparty. The singer celebrated her big win for Video of the Year with a fashionable appearance in a stylish printed dress. Pictured: Taylor Swift BACKGRID USA 11 SEPTEMBER 2024 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- New York, NY – Taylor Swift leaving Jack Antonoff and Sabrina Carpenter’s VMAs after party held at Electric Lady Studios in NYC Pictured: Taylor Swift BACKGRID USA 12 SEPTEMBER 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: BeautifulSignatureIG / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- 2024 MTV Video Music Awards Red Carpet Featuring: Taylor Swift Where: New York, New York, United States When: 11 Sep 2024 Credit: Janet Mayer/INSTARimages.com
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- 2024 MTV Video Music Awards Red Carpet Featuring: Taylor Swift Where: New York, New York, United States When: 11 Sep 2024 Credit: Janet Mayer/INSTARimages.com
Well done, Taylor Swift!
💕
Put those other billionaires to shame, Taylor!
Yep, I really appreciate that Taylor steps up all of the time, while the billionaire men snipe back and forth at each other on social media or through the MSM. She is an excellent role model for girls, no matter what you think of her music or personal life.
Dolly, too.
She also gave money to Kesha to help support her legal battles with Dr. Luke.
Boss move, full stop. Dolly has also donated 2 million of her personal money. I’m ready Elon, Bill and Jeff to pony up, not that they are required to do so, but they amassed their fortune through the people, so I feel that they should give back to said people.
Boss move, indeed.
Instead of thoughts and prayers, the ladies showed the filthy rich men in power how to react.
She also donated to food banks at many of her tour stops- including one in the UK that was so generous the organization said they wouldn’t need to fundraise for a full year aand could instead focus that time on expanding their capabilities to things like job counseling, etc.
Dolly and Taylor are great.
Offically a swiftie now
When did she wear that tie dye two piece? That looks like something Travis would wear (if he had legs like Taylor’s!).
So many male billionaires do not make donations at all. Jeff Bezos seems notoriously stingy. Way to go Taylor showing other billionaires what it means to give back to the society that has enriched you so much.
It was for the VMAs after party. It looks like her second dress of the evening, only more of a sweatshirt material.
Thank you Tay and D…. Next?
Good for Taylor! Feeding America is a great charity to give such a huge donation!
Well done by Taylor. I’ll say this about her, unlike Clooney who would always organize a telethon (nothing wrong with that at all) she gives out of her own pocket. I respect it.
The Red Cross pays so much in overhead I never give to them. I try to find local organizations and give to them. I have a friend who is on the ground in NC and she told me the best organizations to give to are the local southern organizations. Obviously do the research yourself but please see the links below:
https://www.samaritanspurse.org/
https://unitedcajunnavy.org/
That is untrue about the American Red Cross. They have a 4 star rating on Charity Navigator. https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/530196605
Samaritan’s Purse would never get any of my $$. I’ve given to the American Red Cross, Feeding America, and World Central Kitchen for disaster relief.
Exactly, Samaritan’s Purse is run by religious extremists. Avoid at all costs.
They have a four-star rating as well. And that’s why I added for folks to do their own research. My friend who is NOT even close to a religious extremist and this was her recommendation. I just know that what’s on the ground there is so severe and heart breaking that it will take several years for any physical repair to occur.
While I have a bone to pick with the Red Cross, the reality is that they are often the only organization with the infrastructure to immediately go into severe disaster areas. I mostly donate to them for international relief though. Lots of great local organizations in the hurricane instances.
I saw an article about Samaritans Purse and they pay out huge salaries to those who work there starting in the 300ks. I can’t remember where I read the article but it didn’t surprise me.
While I’d never donate to Samaritan’s Purse, $300k for the CEO of a huge, national nonprofit is actually not that bad, unless they also get crazy bonuses for meeting fundraising goals and all sorts of fringe benefits. Consider they are essentially running multi million dollar businesses, with hundreds of employees, multiple locations, etc. Years ago I worked for the national office of Boys and Girls Clubs of America and the CEO made close to $300k, and also had a bonus plan, housing and car allowance, along with the usual benefits (health, phone, tons of vacation, etc).
Red Cross has high overhead and some big salaries but they are also a huge organization and, as others noted, are often the fastest to deploy, though they are also not always the most efficient in distributing resources. If donating to them for a specific disaster you have to read the fine print to make sure that your donation is correctly allocated. They got in big trouble with donors years ago, I can’t remember if it was 9/11 or Katrina, as it was discovered donations were going into their general fund and not supporting the specific disaster they implied they were soliciting the funds to support.
Always check Charity Navigator and Guidestar; if you’re really motivated look at their IRS 990’s to get a sense of program vs admin spends, salaries of their highest paid execs, what they have in reserve funds, even how much they spend on fundraising.
I’d never donate to Wounded Warrior Project as a very small percentage of donations goes into actual programs or direct support. And while Savers/Value Village promotes itself as a thrift store for whatever their selected charity is any given year, it’s actually a for profit company and a VERY small percentage of revenues goes to the NGO.
This is wonderful! Also Taylor has been donating to food banks on all of her era tour stops I think.
Also she inspires a lot of her fans through her example. For example, a Canadian Swiftie started a fundraising campaign for Food Banks Canada ahead of the Eras tour dates in Canada this fall.
Love to see Taylor and her team donating here.
Taylor A. Swift is an amazing woman.
I did the math on this using loose figures – TSwift is reportedly worth a billion dollars. So, $5million is 0.5% of her net worth (less than 1 percent). That’s equivalent to someone making $60,000 a year donating $300.
It’s one donation she’s making of many this year. She makes huge food bank donations in every city she plays. There are many others we don’t know about unless it’s made public by the organization receiving it. How many people making $60,000 a year donate at all. There’s no point in downplaying what she does because she does it constantly.
She’s truly generous. I don’t care how rich she is.
In the UK alone, she’s done more for the poor than Charles or Will ever did. Really puts them to shame.
I’m making around 60k a year and I could never afford to donate 300, no matter how much I wanted to. For me, donating 100 would be huge and given with all my heart.
Don’t know what your intentions were but your calculations don’t diminish Taylor’s gesture in any way. She’s set an example in a world where men richer than her are not donating at all.
5 million is more than you’ve given, Malcolm.
All I was trying to do was to put into perspective what 5 million dollars is like to someone who has an insane amount of money. I’m not critiquing her donation. Tay is obviously very generous and I’m a huge Swiftie. It was a harmless thought experiment.
It’s not equivalent. She doesn’t make $1 billion a year. That’s assets like her song catalog. She’s not sitting on that much cash. Would you expect the person making $60,000 a year to sell their car or house to donate? The donation is likely in proportion to her personal annual income. And it’s a very, very nice donation.
Also, she’s worth $1b, but that doesn’t mean she has $1b in cash or liquid assets. It’s probably mostly from the valuation of her businesses etc.
Around 600M of that is the estimated value of her catalog plus about 100M on real estate. Malcolm really thought he had a gotcha moment. Lol
It’s really not a gotcha moment. I just thought “What would that be like for someone with a $60,000 salary?” I was just trying to put things into perspective, which I don’t think diminishes her very obvious generous donation.
How much are you giving from your annual salary Malcom.
Ok but did you at 60k give $300? Because if not then what is your point?
Good grief. She made a huge donation to a really important cause, and you’re complaining it’s not enough?
I’m not even Swiftie and even I know she’s very charitable and does many donations all the time.
It was far from a complaint. There’s no complaint there. I just thought to myself “what would that be like if the average salaried person made the same donation?” So I did the math and shared my thought. My God.
Oh, gosh. My intention was to not diminish her insanely generous donation. I just think it’s a fun thought experiment to put things in perspective in terms of the average person versus the insanely rich. Like, what actually is 5 million dollars to a person with hundreds of millions? Just something fun to think about.
It is completely possible to have a benign thought on the internet.
People have died, lost their homes, and are stranded by flood waters, fallen trees, and displaced mud. Your post was not a “fun thought experiment” and it was not benign ffs.
That is still way more, even in %, than most people give to this.
Is this supposed to be some kind of ‘cotcha’, because it’s not.
What percentage of your money do you give?
My neighbor’s son and his family live in Hendersonville, TN, where Taylor lived when she was still country. His kids are all musicians and he said she was, even then, quietly philanthropic. She supported the local parks/greenspace as well as arts programming in several area schools, along with several other initiatives..
That’s really awesome
This is totally shallow but does anyone know if there is a site that gives information on Taylor’s makeup. I absolutely love the colour lipstick she’s wearing with the outfit in the top photo. It’s the plaid Vivian Westwood I think. Thanks in advance to anyone that can help.
Nars Morocco
Thank you so much. Running off to order it now. Have a great day.
I think Tiff is right about the lipstick color. I recommend the Nars Air Matte liquid color over the lipstick, if you can get it!
Thank you, I’ll look at that.
TaylorSwiftStyled on IG and Twitter usually has the deets on her clothes, accessories and makeup.
I’ll go look at those. Thank you.
Also a lot of South Carolina had bad Hurricane Helene impacts
I know there’s a lot of cynicism about Taylor on this site and just generally, but she does seem to really want to use her money and influence for good. I really appreciate that.
The more I read about her, the more awesome she becomes in my view.
Good for her! Thanks Taylor. I hope more wealthy celebs step up.
Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Where are you fellas? Let’s go.
Taylor and Dolly are donating from their own personal wealth.
Clooney, Pitt, Bezos, Gates, both the Ex-Mrs Bezos and Gates, Malcom, Oprah, Jay-Z, Springstein, Dylan, Cruise, so many Entertainers worth $50M, etc.
Where are they with their checkbooks?
Yes, everyone is free to donate to their choice, but I think seeing very wealthy celebs like Taylor and Dolly get in there quickly helps lift the spirits, I say I’m a new Swiftie fan, I respect her donating.
I don’t think every celebrity has to give to every single cause or disaster. For example, you list Oprah here but Oprah did a lot for Hawaii post fires. But I do think celebs can use their wallets and platforms to bring attention to urgent causes aligned with their values.
I respect Taylor and Dolly for their big donations too.
Not everyone publicizes their donations.
Also not everyone does a big donation immediately – “Ex Mrs Bezos” Mackenzie Scott seems to be pretty thoughtful and researched in where she sends big donations, I could see her and her team gathering info before starting to send big money.
Pitt and Clooney both built their reputation on being “charitable” so I hope both are contributing.
Cruise only gives to Scientology, I would bet.
Oprah has given A LOT to all kinds of charities. So has ex-Mrs Bezos. Overwhelmingly so, actually.
Don’t think it’s fair to include them with the likes of Bezos.
What a contrast to that young woman in the other article who says she doesn’t care about voting.
Thank you Taylor!
VOTE
VOTE
VOTE
If billionaires and corporations were appropriately taxed, disaster relief orgs would have all the money they needed in times like these (ideally — if funds were not misappropriated etc.), and we wouldn’t have to applaud the few who make big donations like Swift and Parton — and maybe they wouldn’t have to make these donations at all. I dislike that it’s totally up to individual people’s whims whether or not to help society — every person who benefits from a society (a state, a nation) should have to pay their fair share into the common funds of that society.
Aidee Kay, well said. Agreed.
Yup. I think about that with all kinds of charities and such. We’d have free meals in all schools, properly fund animal shelters, universal healthcare and paid leave so no one goes bankrupt when a medical situation happens, etc.
Republicans have voted hard AGAINST all kinds of disaster relief initiatives.
And now they’re blaming Biden/Harris for everything, while they responded quickly on day 1.
One of the consistent things about Taylor, she pays her people well and donates her own money. In that, she reminds me of the old school business man who would see it as their job to take care of their employees and to make sure they are compensated fairly. It is far from modern American capitalism as we know it. She is doing old school capitalism. I am sure 5 million is gonna help a lot of people there, good for her and other people donating their money or time in times of crisis.
This is wonderful, but, just to clarify: $5 million is not a huge sum for Taylor Swift.
How much liquid funds do you think she has? Being worth a billion dollars is not the same as having a billion dollars lying around.
It’s very unlikely that she will need to reschedule her concerts in Miami. South Florida was not significantly impacted by Helene or Milton. But good on her for donating.
What a very decent human being.
It’s a refreshing antidote to the likes of other supremely rich who are downright awful or just too selfish and vapid to care.