Which celebrities do you think give the most to charity? Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have been in the headlines recently for having each given over $4 million to various charities — but there are many others out there who have been equally generous. Here’s a peek at the people behind the checkbooks (although this does not include anonymous donations) and who benefited from their support.
The Giving Back Fund (GBF), an organization that tracks celebrity philanthropy, says that Oprah Winfrey topped their first “Giving Back 30,” a ranking of the celebrities who have made the largest personal public donations to charity in 2006.The Giving Back Fund, established in 1997, seeks to cultivate and nurture a new group of philanthropists within the sports and entertainment communities and to help establish role models who will inspire others to give back.
| # | Celebrity donor/s | Amount | Recipients |
| 1 | Oprah Winfrey | $58,300,000 | Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy, Oprah’s Angel Network and other groups |
| 2 | Geoffrey Beene | $44,000,000 (bequest) | Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center |
| 3 | Jack and Marie Lord | $40,000,000 (bequest) | Hawaii Community Foundation |
| 4 | Barbra Streisand | $11,750,000 | Barbra Streisand Foundation, numerous civil liberties, environmental and civil rights organizations “dedicated to democratic values” |
| 5 | Tiger Woods | $9,500,000 | Tiger Woods Learning Center, Earl D Woods Sr. Scholarship Fund and other Tiger Woods Foundation programs |
| 6 | Rosie O’Donnell | $5,700,000 | Katrina Relief efforts including Renaissance Village (a temporary shelter for Katrina victims), day care centers, a rehabilitation center in San Antonio and a Habitat for Humanity subdivision in Baton Rouge |
| 7 | Martha Stewart | $5,000,000 | New York’s Mt Sinai Hospital for a center on healthy aging |
| 8 | Carmelo Anthony | $4,282,000 | CAF Youth Center in Baltimore, AAU Basketball , Syracuse University Recreational Center and other charities |
| 9 | Pat and Shirley Boone | $3,000,000 | Pepperdine University for the Graduate School of Education and Psychology Center for the Family |
| LeRoy Neiman | $3,000,000 | The School of the Art Institute of Chicago to support a Master’s class in figure drawing | |
| 11 | Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt | $2,415,000 | School and Community Center in Swakopmund in Namibia, Daniel Pearl Foundation, Namibian hospitals, Doctors without Borders, Global Action for Children and others |
| 12 | Nicolas Cage | $2,000,000 | Amnesty International for a fund to help child soldiers |
| Dwayne “The Rock” and Dany Garcia Johnson | $2,000,000 | University of Miami to name new Alumni Center living room | |
| Paul McCartney | $2,000,000 | Adopt-a-Minefield | |
| Arnold Palmer | $2,000,000 | Pledged to the Arnold Palmer Foundation, ultimately to benefit the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute | |
| 16 | David Geffen | $1,600,000 | David Geffen Foundation |
| 17 | Susan Saint.James and Dick Ebersol | $1,300,000 | The Gunnery to help pay for a new dormitory in memory of their son Teddy killed in a plane crash |
| 18 | Jeffrey and Marilyn Katzenberg | $1,250,000 | Boston University to renovate facilities |
| 19 | Andre Agassi | $1,070,000 | Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation |
| 20 | Tiki and Ronde Barber and family | $1,000,000 | University of Virginia to support the McIntire School of Commerce, the Virginia Athletics Foundation, Children’s Hospital, a scholarship fund for African-American students and the Young Alumni Council, and to challenge young alumni to participate in the capital campaign |
| Bob Barker | $1,000,000 | Georgetown University to endow a fund at its law school that will focus on the study of animal rights | |
| Gloria Estefan | $1,000,000 | Miami Paralysis Project | |
| Dr Phil and Robin McGraw | $1,000,000 | Dr Phil Foundation | |
| George Steinbrenner and family | $1,000,000 | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for Boshamer Stadium for baseball | |
| Tony Stewart | $1,000,000 | Victory Junction Gang Camp | |
| Denzel Washington | $1,000,000 | Save Africa’s Children | |
| 27 | Mike Sexton | $560,000 | Special Olympics, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis, Children Inc, Wounded Warrior Project, Ohio State University and other charities |
| 28 | Lance Armstrong | $500,000 | Lance Armstrong Foundation |
| Dolly Parton | $500,000 | Fort Sanders Medical Center | |
| Elizabeth Taylor | $500,000 | New Orleans AIDS Task Force to purchase mobile medical unit for AIDS sufferers in New Orleans |
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