Despite the financial and personal turmoil that plaqued him in the last few years, Michael Jackson was one of the greatest philanthropists who ever lived. Most people forget the fact that MJ was not only a pioneer of the music industry but, he was also a pioneer in charitable fundraising within the entertainment industry.
Like his close friend Elizabeth Taylor, MJ was one of the first entertainers to sign up in the fight against AIDS/HIV. He also went on to contribute and raise hundreds of millions of dollars to help sick children, set up scholarship funds, and to find new ways for entertainers to raise money and awareness for causes.
Jackson set the standard of generosity for other entertainers, particularly pop stars. His now famous “We Are The World,” co-written by Lionel Ritchie in 1985, was instrumental in changing the way music stars generate funds for the causes they care deeply about.
As a brilliant showman, Jackson understood that the way to raise public awareness was to employ the joy of entertainment as the ultimate appeal to people’s consciences. Veteran Hollywood publicist, Howard Bragman stated,
He let his actions speak for him, and those actions were big, grand gestures. A lot of the issues he shed a light on were issues that no one felt comfortable talking about at the time, like AIDS. He was not the guy who would jump on the bandwagon. He was the guy leading the band.”
Here are just a few of those grand gestures made by Jackson:
* He donated proceeds from the 1988 song “Man in the Mirror” to Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times, a camp for children who suffer from cancer.
* He equipped a 19-bed-unit at Mount Sinai New York Medical Center for cancer research and donated part of the earnings from his Victory Tour to the United Negro College Fund.
* He donated all the money he received from his Pepsi endorsements — $1.5 million — to the Michael Jackson Burn Center for Children at Brotman Medical Center in Culver City. Jackson had been treated there when he was burned during the production of a Pepsi commercial.
* Before a concert at Wembley Stadium in 1988, Michael met with Prince Charles and Princess Diana, handing over checks totaling more than $400,000 for the Prince’s Trust and a children’s hospital.
* He founded the Heal the World Foundation to fight illness and poverty among children around the world.
* He boldly joined Ryan White — a boy who was infected with HIV by contaminated blood transfusions, in his fight against the discrimination of those with AIDS — at a time of great fear and dread over the AIDS epidemic. In 1993, Jackson was one of the stars to perform at Bill Clinton’s presidential inauguration. Before he sang “Gone Too Soon,” he talked about the plight of those with AIDS and mentioned Ryan, who died of the disease in 1990.
In 2000, the Guinness Book of World Records cited Jackson for holding the world record for the “Most Charities Supported by a Pop Star.” It is unclear just how much Jackson donated through out his career, but some estimates put the number at more than $500 million.
In the will that is currently being treated by the courts as valid, Jackson indicated that he wanted 20% of the income on the trust, which is to be established by his executors, to go to charity.
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