MERGED ----> To all the naysayers: The top 18 charitable stars:

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Babydoll said:
Like I said, I got it when I was researching for a paper today on an academic journals archives site, and came across this one in the year 2000 to year 2005 archives section. I read it, pasted it and closed it.

It was little-publicized but I'm sure it can be found somewhere online now. I had to get through many links to get to it though. :)
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Just because you find information on the internet doesn't make it the truth.
 
msdw59 said:


Usually I would have sat on the perferrity on this matter, but I felt compelled to replied when I saw the heading on the original post and then I looked at who the listed celebrities were.
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Oh, please... don't sit on the perferrities!!
They're soooo cute! :sad: :sad:

cute_little_perferrity.jpg
 
hcbiggs2002 said:
I suspect that sum is an accumulation of Bonos work with the 'Drop the Dept Campaign', DATA, ONE and (RED) plus personal donations he's made over the years. But it also just goes to show that despite all this money that all these people have donated, and I'm sure there are plenty of other people/organisations who have donated monies to fighting AIDS in Africa but who are not listed here, that it's still not enough to help the poorest of the poor! Africa needs fair trade more than aid. :yes:
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Then you would suspect wrong because just in the US alone in one chunk Bono has gotten $435 million in bilateral debt cancelled. That was when Clinton was still in office. I don't know where the $150 million figure comes from but it is not the drop the debt stuff because that by now is I think into the billions of dollars. 20 million more children are going to school in Africa due to debt relief.

Dana
 
rihannsu said:


Then you would suspect wrong because just in the US alone in one chunk Bono has gotten $435 million in bilateral debt cancelled. That was when Clinton was still in office. I don't know where the $150 million figure comes from but it is not the drop the debt stuff because that by now is I think into the billions of dollars. 20 million more children are going to school in Africa due to debt relief.

Dana
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Oh I totally agree! I was thinking more in the terms of personal donations, time, energy and funds contributed to the different campaigns I listed, rather than the benefits of said campaigns. Coz in my opinion, when mentioning the success of campaigns like Drop the Dept, it would be a disservice to all the other people who worked on said campaign, if one was to put it down solely to Bonos contribution. :shrug:
 
How about this.

I think that innitial posting caused a furor because I think that some of the text lead people to believe that our dear Bono donated 150M.

Considering that U2 businesses are umbrelled under a private entity, we will never know exactly what their net value is; it is highly improbable that he donated such a large sum.

And the people that the list excluded made the entries all the more suspect.

What happened to Elizabeth Taylor who almost single handedly raised over 75M for aids.

No mention of that glorious womens work.

Saying that, I found the entire list to be suspect. Considering that I was able to breakdown almost line for line who gave what to what orgainzations.

It attributed all of the people on it as donating specific amounts all in the battle of Aids in Africa when it actually should have stated that they were philanthropic and gave charrity. And to add a good measure they should have stated what charrities.

Bono trades on the currency of celebrity. How you measure that in cash is beyond me. But I don't think it adds up to 150M.

How you eat with celebrity currency is beyond me. It looks like he's pretty good at convincing people to write the checks, but so far we haven't seen him actually put pen to paper to do it himself.

I was able to pick the list apart.

what I found more distrubing was that high fives were put up and that the text was taken as gospel. If anything we should applaud the truth, and not some rumoured truth of greatness.

If it's too good to be true, it's probably is.

I want to believe that Bono gives a lot. But I hardly think that he's got off that huge wad of cash (to the determent of his family's finances and donated 150M).

Considering that they(u2) were skint for a number of years and made little money. That POP mart loss a ton of money.

And because they (the band), take on very little sponsorship (if any) of their tours, they finance that bit of business themselves.

In otherwords, they are not cash rich.

It is highly improbable that the 150M number is accurate.

(the truth shall set you free and the crap on the internet should always be looked upon with a grain of salt)
 
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Babydoll said:
Like I said, I got it when I was researching for a paper today on an academic journals archives site, and came across this one in the year 2000 to year 2005 archives section. I read it, pasted it and closed it.

It was little-publicized but I'm sure it can be found somewhere online now. I had to get through many links to get to it though. :)
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I'll help you out on this one.

The list that you quoted from was originally complied by OK Magazine . A lofty and respected new journal.

The article was then quoted in US magazine (another reliable source)
 
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OK, we've got a source. That's good. Now can we get a more precise reference and a link so that I can check this out myself?

Just to make it clear, I don't mean to insinuate that the original poster is a liar or anything. I'd just like to see these figures and their context for myself, and then come to a conclusion about whether to accept them as valid or not. I'd take them much more seriously if they prove to be from something peer-reviewed rather than, say, a tabloid.
 
msdw59, if you had read babydoll's posts thoroughly, you would have seen that she took the information from a journal database, not some random internet site. While I don't have access to the database in question through my work (I'm a librarian), I know someone who does and I'll be asking him to get me into the database to see if I can find the article in question. Until I see the article, and more importantly the journal it comes from, I'm not going to say that it is irrefutably from a reputable source, but it is certainly not the same as something just found on the internet.

This is why librarians like myself spend so much time trying to get through thick undergrad students' heads that not everything can be found through google!
 
Last estimate I read had the bands worth at $900mill. Divide that by 5, you get $180mill. Maybe they just figured since Bono said "celebrity is currency" that therefore qualifies all of his worth as a donation. :wink:
 
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Oh no, please not this discussion again. Why is this important? Apparently no one knows for sure how much Bono actually really donates, so let's not speculate in either direction, okay? I still feel he should not make it public, it's fine this way.
He is doing fantastic work in campaigning.
People should look at themselves and see what they can do personally instead of always looking to other ones.
Personally I believe that private financial issues should not be talked about and I don't like celebrities going around saying how much money they are actually donating.
I don't care how much money they have.
I trust them to give to charity, how much exactly, I don't want to know, it's none of our business.
As Bono said everybody has to do what's right according to their own conscience.
 
msdw59, I agree with you about Elizabeth Taylor. She's a woman I admire and has done a lot for AIDS charity.
Lists like this should not be made at all. Almost all of them are not accurate.
This should NOT be a competition.

But please stop saying "our dear Bono" in every single post you make, it's ridiculous. You are mocking people here who care for the man and have respect for him.
 
Why are we comparing Bono to Liz Taylor? What a wast of my time here. They are both generous in the aspect of giving and raising money, awareness, etc... They use their celebrity for something great. Congrats to both ...
 
URhonda2 said:
Why are we comparing Bono to Liz Taylor? What a wast of my time here. They are both generous in the aspect of giving and raising money, awareness, etc... They use their celebrity for something great. Congrats to both ...
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I agree. Like I said, lists like that should not be made at all, because this should not be about competition.
 
well, regardless of what the source is, it must be lying. no way bono would disclose how much he donates. he is a convinced christian, you know.
 
last unicorn said:
msdw59, I agree with you about Elizabeth Taylor. She's a woman I admire and has done a lot for AIDS charity.
Lists like this should not be made at all. Almost all of them are not accurate.
This should NOT be a competition.

But please stop saying "our dear Bono" in every single post you make, it's ridiculous. You are mocking people here who care for the man and have respect for him.
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it's a term of endearment. No mockery intended. He is dear. I'm sticking to my guns on that. And anyone who doesn't think he's dear or are offended by term needs to really chill or bounce. And you are offensive to me and anyone else that feels this man is dear. I guess you would have preferred if I said "he's hot" "I like his arse" Well I'm not concentrating on those superficial aspects of him. I'm concentrating on the heart and soul of the man. And he is dear in my humble book.
 
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PJW said:
msdw59, if you had read babydoll's posts thoroughly, you would have seen that she took the information from a journal database, not some random internet site. While I don't have access to the database in question through my work (I'm a librarian), I know someone who does and I'll be asking him to get me into the database to see if I can find the article in question. Until I see the article, and more importantly the journal it comes from, I'm not going to say that it is irrefutably from a reputable source, but it is certainly not the same as something just found on the internet.

This is why librarians like myself spend so much time trying to get through thick undergrad students' heads that not everything can be found through google!
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The article was found. By me. In OK magazine and quoted in US Magazine. Both magazines of higher learning and factual integrity.

The OK magazine article was a rip off of the Forbe's site where they looked into celebrity givers.
 
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msdw59 said:

it's a term of endearment. No mockery intended. He is dear. I'm sticking to my guns on that. And anyone who doesn't think he's dear or are offended by term needs to really chill or bounce. And you are offensive to me and anyone else that feels this man is dear. I guess you would have preferred if I said "he's hot" "I like his arse" Well I'm not concentrating on those superficial aspects of him. I'm concentrating on the heart and soul of the man. And he is dear in my humble book.
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Sorry, in the context of your post I found it to be a bit cynical.
Because you made it seem as if you don't believe he's donating himself, and I have become a little sensitive to this subject.
Yes, he definitly is dear to me and do many other people, no doubt about that.
I just don't want to see it mentioned all over again in a context implying that we might see him only in a positive way because we love him and want to believe in him.
If I misintepreted your post, I am sorry, no offense intented.
 
And where I got it was when I was looking up something on Academic Search Premier.

It's perhaps copied from the journal by the magazines, or vice-versa.

:)
 
Earnie Shavers said:
Last estimate I read had the bands worth at $900mill. Divide that by 5, you get $180mill. Maybe they just figured since Bono said "celebrity is currency" that therefore qualifies all of his worth as a donation. :wink:
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Does "band's worth" refer to how much they are all worth factoring in everything? Or just the money they've made from being in the band? (selling music, concerts, etc)? B/c how can you "divide by five" the money that Bono makes in his own business ventures?
 
Babydoll said:
And where I got it was when I was looking up something on Academic Search Premier.

It's perhaps copied from the journal by the magazines, or vice-versa.

:)
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I hope that the Academic Search Premier doesn't take statistics from tabloids.
 
Oh, and in regards to cross posting...please try to avoid it, it's just confusing having the same topic going on in more than one spot. I've merged the topics together.

If anybody ever posts a topic somewhere that could also go on another board, and you later wish to have it moved, please contact a moderator.
 
U2Man said:
well, regardless of what the source is, it must be lying. no way bono would disclose how much he donates. he is a convinced christian, you know.
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I don't think a person would have to disclose the amount in order for someone to get their hands on it, I imagine there are other ways to get that information.
 
Babydoll said:
To the issue of AIDS and development in Africa, here are some little publicized actual dollar amounts:

Elton John DONATED $155 MILLION
Bono DONATED $150M
Bob Geldof DONATED $130M
Sheryl Crow DONATED $122M
Paul Newman DONATED $100M
Michael J. Fox DONATED $90M
Lance Armstrong DONATED $90M
Oprah Winfrey DONATED $60M
Jay Leno DONATED $50M
Katie Couric DONATED $28M
Ellen DeGeneres DONATED $20M
Harry Conick Jr. DONATED $18M
Denis Leary DONATED $8M
Arnold Schwarzenegger DONATED $4M
Brad Pitt DONATED $3.4M
Angelina Jolie DONATED $3.2M
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Ok, here are some reliable sources. First is a web page called Slate (owned by the Washington Post).
http://www.slate.com/
It uses data from the Chronicle of Philanthropy - a well respected outfit here in DC that tracks charitable giving.
http://www.philanthropy.com/

Here is the data on Oprah from Slate.
http://specials.slate.com/slate60/donors/oprah-winfrey/

So from 2003 to 2005, she has donated over $150M. So it is possible that the original list somehow reflects the amount that was only designated for Africa.

You can also see the list of the Top 60 donors (Slate 60) per year.
http://specials.slate.com/slate60/2006/

As you can see, anyone giving about $30M or more per year makes it on the list. So the possible explanation for Lance not making it is that his donation of $90M is spread over several years and does not rise above the threshold in any one year.

Need to find a list of donors outside the US - these sources are for American donors only.

BD - The Truth is out there!!
 
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