Most of us know Sandra Bullock for her iconic movie roles, but the actress is also a devoted philanthropist who helps many countries and cities with relief efforts in the aftermath of natural disasters. Bullock isn’t the only celebrity who has donated both time and money to important causes. George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, Sean Penn, Jane Fonda and Leonardo DiCaprio also regularly use their star power to make the world a better place.
Sandra Bullock:
Offering A Lifeline To Disaster Survivors
A longtime philanthropist, actress Sandra Bullock, who turns 58 on July 26, often quietly makes donations to charitable causes, helping thousands of families recover from unimaginable tragedies.
The Oscar winner, who has appeared in movies including “The Blind Side,” “Gravity,” “Bird Box,” “Miss Congeniality,” “Speed” and “The Proposal,” knows the importance of family. This past March she announced she was taking a break from acting to focus on raising her son Louis, who she adopted in 2010 and daughter Laila, adopted in 2015.
One of Bullock’s favorite charities is the American Red Cross, a nonprofit that provides shelter, food and health services to help families and communities get back on their feet after a natural disaster.
Bullock was in New York on 9/11 when planes hit the Twin Towers, and in the aftermath of the tragedy, she donated a million dollars to the Red Cross. In 2004, when a deadly tsunami hit Indonesia, she once again donated a million dollars to the Red Cross.
After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, Bullock again donated a million dollars to the Red Cross. The actress, who has a home in the city, also stepped in to help Warren Easton Charter High School, the oldest public high school in Louisiana, rebuild after the hurricane. Bullock funded scholarships, purchased athletic equipment, and opened a health clinic on the campus.
She also donated a million dollars to the Red Cross after earthquakes hit Haiti in 2010, Japan in 2011 and Hurricane Harvey devastated Texas in 2017.
In 2018, when wildfires hit California, the actress gave $100,000 to the Humane Society of Ventura County and $400,000 to the Red Cross.
“I’m glad to be able to help,” Bullock said in a statement when making the donation. “We’re all family in this, whether it be human, furry or feathered.”
Last year, after Texas experienced a historic winter snowstorm, the former Austin resident donated $250,000 (along with her co-stars from the movie, “Ocean’s 8”) to the Central Texas Food Bank in Austin to provide one million meals to local families.
George Clooney:
Heralding Environmental And Humanitarian Causes
While George Clooney, 61, is best known for his roles in both television (“The Facts of Life,” “ER”) and movies (“The Ides of March,” “Michael Clayton,” “Syriana” and “The Descendants”), he is also an accomplished activist.
A longtime advocate for human rights in Sudan, Clooney and his father Nick joined the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in delivering 12 tons of emergency supplies to an impoverished village in South Sudan in 2016. Clooney has raised money and addressed the United Nations to draw attention to refugees from Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region.
In a 2016 speech at a humanitarian conference in Yerevan, Armenia, Clooney spoke about why helping refugees holds a special meaning for him and how his own ancestors fled a famine in Ireland to come to the U.S.
“Refugees are people just like you and me,” Clooney said. “The simple truth is we all stand on the shoulders of good people who didn’t look away when we were in need.”
The Oscar winner and his wife Amal Clooney, an international human rights lawyer, are co-founders of the Clooney Foundation for Justice, a nonprofit that stands up for individuals who are unfairly targeted around the globe.
Although the actor has always used his platform to defend causes, he admits his work as an advocate for environmental and humanitarian causes has become even more meaningful when he thinks of the legacy he wants to leave his five-year-old twins, Ella and Alexander.
“I’d be so embarrassed if my kids in 20 years look back at this moment in time and said, ‘you were okay with this and you didn’t stand up and say something?’” Clooney said in November 2021 while making an appearance on the “WTF With Marc Maron” podcast.
Leonardo DiCaprio:
Environmental Champion
Leonardo DiCaprio, 47, has two passions in life: acting and saving our planet. In 1998, at the age of 24, he established the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation (LDF) to bring attention and funding to environmental issues including ocean and forest conservation and the climate crisis.
As an actor and producer, DiCaprio also uses his craft to raise awareness of important issues affecting our planet. His film “The Loneliest Whale” follows a mission to find a 52-year-old whale, while also weaving in messages about how issues such as global warming and noise pollution are affecting marine life.
In an interview with Netflix Film Club, DiCaprio describes the 2021 movie, “Don’t Look Up,” where he plays a frustrated scientist attempting to warn the world about an oversized comet headed toward Earth, as “an analogy of modern-day culture and our inability to hear and listen to scientific truth.”
The Oscar winner who has starred in movies including “Inception,” “Titanic,” “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” hopes people will take the threat of climate change more seriously. In 2014, DiCaprio was named the United Nations Messenger of Peace for Climate Change. He also sits on the board of several environmental organizations.
In his 2016 Oscars speech for his role in “The Revenant,” he said, “Climate change is real, it’s happening now. It’s the most urgent threat to our entire species.”
Jane Fonda:
Proving Activism Is Ageless
Growing older hasn’t prevented Jane Fonda from championing the causes she believes in. At 84, she continues to be a passionate advocate for issues including the climate crisis and civil rights.
The actress, who has appeared in numerous movies (“Barbarella,” “On Golden Pond,” “Klute,” “9 to 5” and “Coming Home”) and television shows including her current role on “Grace & Frankie,” also became the queen of home fitness videos in the 1980s. After releasing a series of aerobic videos and books, Fonda empowered a generation of women to become stronger and healthier.
In 2019, she launched Fire Drill Fridays, a weekly teach-in and demonstration to raise awareness of the climate crisis. The following year, Fonda released her book, “What Can I Do? My Path from Climate Despair to Action,” encouraging readers to join her in the fight for our planet.
“Today, the climate crisis requires collective action on a scale that humanity has never accomplished,” Fonda wrote in an opinion piece for The Guardian in October, 2021. “Instead of changing straws and lightbulbs, we need to focus on changing policy and politicians. We need large numbers of people working together for solutions that work for the climate.”
Fonda’s legacy as an activist was chronicled in the 2018 HBO documentary, “Jane Fonda in Five Acts,” which begins with the Oscar winner’s anti-war protests in the late 1960s and spans to her efforts to raise awareness of climate change in her 80s.
“When you’re famous, there’s a real responsibility to use that celebrity in the best way you can,” Fonda told EcoWatch in a January 2020 interview.
Angelina Jolie:
Making The World A Better Place
Although she’s known as an Oscar-winning actress who has appeared in movies including “Maleficent,” “Girl Interrupted” and “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” Angelina Jolie, 47, has also established herself as a global humanitarian.
The mother of six founded the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation in 2003, named after her son Maddox, who she adopted from Cambodia. As a conservation group, the nonprofit works to preserve Cambodia’s environment and alleviate rural poverty. In 2007, Jolie and her then husband, Brad Pitt, donated a million dollars to assisting displaced refugees in Sudan’s Darfur region.
In 2012, Jolie was named Special Envoy to the United Nations Refugee Agency, where she focuses on major crises that result in mass population displacements, undertaking advocacy and engaging with decision-makers on global displacement issues.
“I find myself a student at their feet,” Jolie told Vogue in 2020 of her work with refugees. “I have learned more from them about family, resilience, dignity and survival, than I can express.”
Sean Penn:
Political And Social Activist
An Oscar-winning actor, Sean Penn, 61, isn’t afraid to say what’s on his mind. In the past, he’s spoken out on his opposition to the Iraq War and secretly interviewed fugitive Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman for a Rolling Stone article, shortly before the drug lord was recaptured.
Known for starring roles in movies including “Mystic River,” “Milk,” “Bad Boys,” “Dead Man Walking” and “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” Penn has demonstrated a willingness to travel and lend his assistance where it’s needed most.
His nonprofit, Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE), founded in response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and the documentary, “Citizen Penn,” chronicles the actor’s humanitarian efforts in Haiti and his nonprofit’s role in helping with COVID-19 testing and vaccines across the United States.
More recently, Penn was in Ukraine, filming a documentary about Russia’s invasion and is now also raising funds to assist Ukrainian refugees.
On his efforts to help the people of Ukraine, Penn said in a March 2022 press conference, “I’m going to do everything I can do, whether it’s me being here or coming back many times. They can count on me as I count on them.”
