One more thing to love about Oprah Winfrey: she puts her money where her mouth is. Winfrey, 56, has been ranked #1 on the Giving Back Fund's list of the most charitable celebrities -- for the third time! The entertainment icon, whom Business Week once called "the greatest Black philanthropist in a American history," donated $41,400,000 this year through her two charities: the Oprah Winfrey Foundation, which educates and supports underprivileged women and children, and the Oprah Angel Network, which supports charitable causes worldwide.
However -- as much as we love Oprah's generosity, it's pretty much a given that she'll appear on any list of the most generous/influential/wealthy/generally awesome celebrities. So what other famous names made the Top 30 Most Charitable list? You might be surprised!
The second most philanthropic celebrity is author Nora Roberts, who gave nearly as much money as Oprah this year (4.45 million) in support of literacy and arts education. In third place is the greatest actress of her generation, Meryl Streep, who donated 4 million to the Silver Mountain Foundation for the Arts along with husband Donald Gummer (who co-founded the charity).
Other celebs who made the list include Alec Baldwin (1. 6 million to arts and environmental organizations), Barbra Streisand (1.4 million to women's health and Democratic causes), Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld(1 million to education), Tyler Perry (1 million to the NAACP), Will and Jada Smith (550,000 to inner-city development) and Will Ferrell and his wife (half a million to nonprofit organizations).
The most surprising donors, in our opinion? Larry the Cable Guy, who gave 1.2 million to build children's hospitals, and Yeardley Smith (the voice of Lisa Simpson!), who gave $900,000 to the poverty-fighting Greeman Foundation.
You can view the full list here. Hopefully, it will help motivate other celebrities to give back -- because although the 30 who made this list are awesome, we're sure they're not the only stars with half a million bucks to spare.
Do you think celebrities should donate more money to charity? Chime in below!
Source: http://www.ivillage.com/oprah-winfrey-most-charitable-celebrity/1-a-305838
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