Welcome to Progressive Pockets! I go by GG, that’s short for Genet Gimja. This is a show about a feeling that I just can’t shake, that we’re leaving some of our power on the table. Yes, we vote, maybe you protest, maybe you write letters to your senator, you’re an ally at your job in your community, you’re recycling. This show is about our wallets and what we do with our money on a daily basis. For a long time I felt that the two were almost unrelated. My values for the world I want and what I do with my wallet. But this show is really about exploring that disconnect and seeing if there aren’t practical things we can do to bridge the gap.

Welcome if you’re new, episodes come out once a week. They’re always concise and to the point. Usually in August I like to do a Celebrity Giving Series just to sort of take a lighter touch while we’re hopefully unwinding and enjoying our summers.

Celebrities covered have included Serena Williams, Taylor Swift, Chrissy Teigan and John Legend. Oh, there was an episode about former President Barack Obama. I think he might have been the very first celebrity covered in the Celebrity Giving Series.

Well today the celebrity is Dolly Parton. Let’s talk about where she donates her money. I really enjoyed researching this and learning more about the community work she has done since the 1980s.

Let’s start with her giving around Education and Literacy.

The Dollywood Foundation

• Established in 1988: Initially aimed to reduce high school dropout rates in Sevier County, Tennessee. The foundation's first initiative, the Buddy Program, successfully decreased the dropout rate from 35% to 6% by offering $500 to students who graduated high school. Just give ‘em cash! If you’ve ever been poor you understand this, the best way to help people is to just give them cash. Now the researchers are discovering what we’ve known all along. Just give ‘em cash.
• Imagination Library: Founded in 1995, this program provides a free book every month to children from birth until they start school. Inspired by her father's inability to read, the program has expanded internationally, distributing millions of books annually.

Let’s talk about the scholarships that Dolly Parton has set up.

• Dolly Parton Scholarship: Annually awards $15,000 to five high school seniors in Sevier County who demonstrate a commitment to their dreams.
• Special Merit Scholarship: In 2016, Parton awarded a $30,000 scholarship to celebrate the Imagination Library's milestone of shipping one million books per month.

Disaster Relief is another area, where I was already more familiar with Dolly Parton’s giving.

She has the My People Fund

• 2016 Wildfires: Following devastating wildfires in Sevier County, Parton raised over $13 million through a telethon and benefit concert. The fund provided $1,000 monthly for six months to affected families, along with additional financial support totaling $8.9 million. You know, this thing that Dolly Parton does of just giving people cash who need it, really makes me believe her when she talks about growing up poor in East Tennessee. There are a lot of celebrities who will say that they grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, and it never quite rings true. Dolly Parton’s way of giving makes me believe her. The My People Fund still helps residents pay for rent and utilities, plus food and mental health resources.

Ok so that was her giving to survivors of the wildfires in her home town. She has also supported people dealing with floods

• In 2016, Dolly Parton raised $700,000 to help residents impacted by catastrophic flooding in Middle Tennessee, with funds distributed by the United Way of Humphreys County.

Let’s move on to Healthcare

First, the LeConte Medical Center

• Dolly Parton donated $500,000 and held a benefit concert that raised an additional $500,000 for the LeConte Medical Center in Sevierville, Tennessee. The hospital's women's health ward is named in her honor.

COVID-19 Vaccine Research

• In 2020, Parton donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, aiding the development of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine.

Pediatric infectious disease research

• Parton made yet another $1 million donation to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville in June 2022, this time aimed at helping pediatric infectious disease research.

When it comes to Environmental Conservation, Dolly Parton has created something called the Eagle Mountain Sanctuary.

• It is a Dollywood Exhibit: Opened in 1991, this 30,000-square-foot aviary at Dollywood houses the largest collection of "non-releasable" bald eagles, managed by the American Eagle Foundation. Dolly wood just sounds like the most random place ever. Fascinating.

Being the prolific businesswoman that Dolly Parton is, she obviously employs a lot of people at The Dollywood Company. Well her company announced in February 2022 that it will cover 100% of tuition, fees and books for any employee who is furthering their education.

The program is available to all seasonal, part-time and full-time employees at Dollywood Parks & Resorts. Employees can enroll in the program on their first day of employment.

Her employees have free access to over 100 fully-funded diploma, degree, and certificate programs across 30 learning partners. Fields include business administration, leadership, culinary arts, finance, technology, and marketing. Additionally, partial funding of up to $5,250 per year is available for 150 additional programs in areas such as hospitality, engineering, human resources, and art design

This reminds me of the old school type of employee programs that used to exist when I first finished school and I was going to say entered the workforce, but I mean, I started working when I was 14, so I guess I’ll say it reminds me of the old school type of employee benefit programs that existed when I finished school and then went right back to working. LOL.

I found some information about other one off projects she’s done too, like

• The time she used royalties from Whitney Houston's cover of "I Will Always Love You" to invest in a Black neighborhood in Nashville, purchasing an office complex. I believe it was a strip mall. She called it “the house that Whitney built,” may she rest in peace.
• Michael Harriot, journalist and writer, revealed in 2022 that Parton has been sponsoring the uniforms in several Black high schools for years. And I do mean years, the receipts go back at least 30 years.
• There are other stories of her doing things like when she found out the middle school kids were having to share lockers she called the Bureau of Education and asked them to build enough lockers for all the kids and send her the bill.

So, for all of this, her public giving, her quiet giving, maybe it’s not a surprise that she won the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2022. 

That same year, in November of 2022, Dolly Parton Billionaire Jeff Bezos’ third annual Courage and Civility Award, which came with a $100 million donation from Bezos to her Dollywood Foundation. For my gen Z listeners who are keeping score, yes this is the part of the simulation where billionaires are making charitable donations to millionaires.

So to recap, today we talked about Dolly Parton’s philanthropy, thank you to the listener that submitted this episode topic, I learned so much about her giving and in some ways it reminded me of the episode about Rihanna’s giving, that was episode 88. The parallel that I see is that you look at the person and you understand their background and what they care about and then you look at their giving and you can totally see how their identity is rooted in their giving. I just love that.

• Dolly Parton’s giving spans education, disaster relief, medical research, and what am I forgetting? Environmental conservation.
• Her giving stands out in that she gives people the cash they need rather than inserting middle men.
• Her giving also stands out because so much of it is focused on her community, the people of Tennessee, all around the Smokey Mountains and throughout the state. Those are her roots and it shows up very clearly in her giving.

If you have more time today, here’s another episode to check out, episode 128 this is an episode about whether or not people who donate a lot, consistently actually identify as philanthropists. The episode is interesting. In short, it turns out that your identities can predict if you will identify as a philanthropist more than whether you actually donate or not.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s episode, even if you’re really busy working 9 to 5, would you please take a moment to hit 5 starts on your podcast player. I see the downloads, I see you coming back week after week, please hit 5 stars to register your support for this show.

Let’s end with a quote…

Wealth is used to divide us and control us and exploit us, but it doesn't have to be. Edgar Villanueva

Let’s talk again soon!