Even though Dolly Parton doesn’t want to be put on a pedestal, many can’t help but do it. Not only has she written indelible songs like “I Will Always Love You” and “Jolene,” but Parton is one of today’s great philanthropists. She is a humanitarian, as much as she is an artist.
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Below are six of Parton’s most noteworthy achievements, from creating scholarships for underprivileged students to donating money to help create a drug that saved countless lives, Parton is a modern-day saint if there ever was one.
What her work and its effectiveness show are that charity coming from a celebrated celebrity done with authenticity makes miracles happen.
[RELATED: American Songwriter November Cover Story: Dolly Parton—The Eternal Artist]
1. The Imagination Library
In 1995, Parton started a program that continues today. Parton’s Imagination Library, which sends books to children free of charge from birth until their first year of school, was inspired by her father and continues with his memory. Parton’s dad was unable to read and so she wanted to give the gift of literacy to children everywhere.
“I started that from a tender place in my heart,” Parton told American Songwriter, “because my dad couldn’t read and write. And I got my daddy involved in that to try to give him some pride in thinking there were a lot of people who can’t read and write and to have him help me with something so that we could have little children learn to read at an early age.”
2. Donations to Nashville neighborhood
Parton wrote the 1973 hit “I Will Always Love You” as a way to tell her then-collaborator, Porter Wagoner, that, even though she wanted to split from their musical partnership, she would, yes, always love him. Fast-forward a decade, or so, and Whitney Houston covered the song for the film The Bodyguard. Since then, it has become one of the most popular songs ever and made both Houston and Parton rich many times over. Well, Parton recently revealed that she invested some of the royalties from that song in a Black neighborhood in Nashville in Houston’s honor.
3. Donation to Vanderbilt University Medical Center
The world knows and remembers the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and 2021. One of the reasons the populous was able to get through that tough time, during which many died, was thanks to vaccines. No matter how you feel about them politically, scientifically they staved off the virus for many. And the creation of the Moderna vaccine was thanks, in part, to Parton’s $1 million donation to Nashville’s Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
4. Dollywood Foundation
Parton established the Dollywood Foundation in 1988. Since then, it has been perhaps her biggest achievement. Parton opened her Dollywood theme park in 1986, but it was her foundation two years later that has done a great deal. It was with the Dollywood Foundation that she started the Imagination Library. In 1991, Parton started the Eagle Mountain Sanctuary, which helps preserve avian life. And in later years, the Dollywood Foundation has begun countless scholarship programs for children, as well as the Chasing Rainbow Award for teachers.
5. The Buddy Program
In 1991 Parton started the Buddy Program in her native Sevier County, Tennessee. It went like this: seventh and eighth graders picked a buddy. Parton promised each pair $500 in cash if they both graduated from high school. At the time the dropout rate for students was around 30-35% but thanks to her Buddy Program, that dropped to 6%.
6. The My People Fund
Also through her Dollywood Foundation, Parton helped rebuild homes in the wake of wildfires. As global temperatures continue to rise, there are more and more wildfires every year, especially during the summer months. In 2016 when they affected her native Smoky Mountains, she pledged $1,000 per month for six months to families who lost their homes in the fires. She also raised millions of dollars through a telethon.
Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images
