Celebrities Give Their Money to Good Causes
By Brandi Brown
March 21, 2001

After September 11, many celebrities followed the growing trend of giving by starting their own philanthropies or donating money to their local charities. Destiny's Child, Justin Timberlake, Julia Stiles and Britney Spears are among dozens of celebrities who donate their time and money to such causes. Among some of the most popular charities are The Until There's A Cure Foundation, Habitat for Humanity and the Giving Back Fund. Destiny's Child is one of the major contributors to The Until There's a Cure Foundation.

The Until There's a Cure Foundation is a non-profit organization based in California that raises money to support HIV/AIDS organizations and vaccine development. The foundation's new public service announcement campaign shows various celebrities wearing "The Bracelet" in printed advertisements.
"The Bracelet" is a band adorned with an AIDS ribbon. The black and white ads can be seen in magazines such as "People" and "Teen." Over $4 million dollars have been donated to AIDS related causes and over 450,000 bracelets have been sold.
While some celebrities donate money to publicity campaigns, actress Julia Stiles (Save the Last Dance) donates time to an equally worthy organization, Habitat for Humanity. It is reported that she has even gone to Costa Rica to help build homes. Habitat for Humanity builds homes for low-income families. Volunteers build entire homes from the ground up and do various jobs such as painting and plumbing.

Along with Julia, singers Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake of 'NSYNC work closely with charities. Britney and Justin have both joined with The Giving Back Fund to create their own charitable foundations. The Giving Back Fund is a national non-profit organization that helps celebrities establish charitable foundations.

The Justin Timberlake Foundation was founded to provide funding for music programs in public schools. The foundation's main focus is to integrate music programs into school curriculums. Along with Timberlake, Spears also supports music education.
The Britney Spears Foundation is affiliated with independent organizations, including Camp Summer Stars, Spears' own performing arts camp for urban youth ages 11-14 and The Starlight Children's Foundation, a worldwide non-profit organization that helps seriously ill children.

Timberlake and Spears both participate in the MathNMusic Club, an internet-based mathematics support program as well. The program presents math concepts in a unique, real world scenario.

Many celebrities use charities as a form of giving back to their home communities and communities nationwide. The efforts of celebrities to charities generate good will and good publicity. It can be seen as a business trick or simply a 'random act of kindness.' A lot of the work is not done for publicity, however. Often hundreds of dollars and many financial initiatives go unreported.

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