The biggest name in pop music right now is undoubtedly Taylor Swift. Throughout her 21-year career, Swift has amassed a plethora of accolades, including 14 Grammy Awards and being named Person of the Year by Time magazine last year.
Propelled by the success of her Eras Tour as well as album sales, Swift crossed into billionaire territory in October of last year. Forbes estimates her current net worth at about $1.3 billion and the tour itself is estimated to have brought in as much as $4.1 billion – further good news for her skyrocketing fortune. While plenty of top musicians give to causes and charities, and some have extensive grantmaking operations, Swift’s philanthropic efforts to date have been more informal.
Swift has not set up a foundation, nor does she currently appear to give through a dedicated DAF (though she did establish the Taylor Swift Charitable Fund housed at the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee in response to the devastating floods that took place in 2010). Instead, she makes her donations on an individual, case-by-case basis. These are often — though not always — made quietly, and typically only come to light when recipients thank her on social media or through press releases.
Prior to her Eras Tour, Swift’s funding was largely U.S.-based, with a portion concentrated in Tennessee, where Swift and her family moved when she was 14. But as she embarked on her latest record-breaking global tour, Swift’s giving has expanded to other parts of the world.
We’ll have to see whether Swift will continue her current approach to giving, or if she’ll set up some more formal structure. We say it often about super-rich business leaders, but it applies to pop megastars, too: Swift is still immersed in her career and may turn to more institutionalized forms of giving down the road. For now though, here is a nonexhaustive list of Swift’s giving over the years.
Food banks
Although the amounts have not been disclosed, perhaps Swift’s biggest philanthropic impact is through her support for food banks in cities where she held concerts during her Eras Tour. One example: During the U.S. leg of her tour, Swift made a “generous contribution” to the Arizona Food Bank Network. According to CNN, the funding allowed the food bank network to distribute “several tractor-trailers filled with 40,000 pounds of fresh produce” to member food banks.
Swift also supported Three Square Food Bank, a Feeding America member that serves Las Vegas and southern Nevada. Three Square Food Bank stated that it “saw an uptick both in donations and interest in its mission” after Swift’s donation — yet another example that celebrities can give through their platforms as well as their fortunes, with Swift’s platform being one of the world’s biggest.
Other food banks Swift has backed include Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, Seattle’s Food Lifeline and Feeding Tampa Bay.
Across the pond, the BBC reported that Swift donated €25,000 (or $27,881) to Crosscare, a food bank in Dublin. Her donation to Cardiff Foodbank in Wales is reportedly the largest donation ever made to the Welsh organization by an individual and will allow it to provide around 10,800 meals to people in need.
And Swift’s contribution to St. Andrew’s Community Network in Liverpool, which operates 11 food banks and eight community pantry locations in the city, will fund the network’s food donations for an entire year. Chief Executive Rich Jones called the donation “the most incredible gift” and added that it gives the network “breathing space to focus on fundraising efforts going forward.”
Swift also made a “substantial” donation to Voedselbank Amsterdam in the Netherlands. And there are undoubtedly numerous other donations to food banks that haven’t been publicized.
Human rights
Swift began expressing support for LGBTQ rights in 2019. That same year, during Pride Month in June, she donated an undisclosed amount to GLAAD. The media advocacy organization said the funding would be used to “amplify stories as well as create campaigns that fight back against the current rise of hate and discrimination and also accelerate acceptance of LGBTQ people.” Her donation to GLAAD led to a spike in donations totaling $13 (reportedly Swift’s favorite number) to the organization from other contributors.
Swift also donated $113,000 in 2019 to the Tennessee Equality Project, which worked to defeat six anti-LGBTQ bills — dubbed the “Slate of Hate” — in the state legislature.
Addressing sexual abuse has also drawn Swift’s support. After winning a countersuit against a former DJ who groped her, Swift made a donation to actress Mariska Hargitay’s Joyful Heart Foundation in 2017 to support survivors of sexual assault. The foundation’s CEO, Maile Zambuto, said Swift’s donation was an “extremely generous financial investment.” The following year, in April — which is Sexual Assault Awareness Month — Swift made a donation to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, the nation’s largest anti-sexual-violence organization.
In 2020, Swift posted on Instagram that she had made a donation to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and encouraged her followers to do the same.
Humanitarian and disaster relief
Swift has made several donations for emergency relief over the years. In 2009, for example, Swift donated $100,000 to the Red Cross to support survivors of the Iowa floods. The following year, she donated $500,000 to flood relief organizations in Nashville, and helped raise $75,000 for tornado relief in 2011.
In August 2016, Swift donated $1 million to support Louisiana flood relief efforts. The flooding left 13 people dead and about 146,000 homes damaged. Swift’s donations were split up between Convoy of Hope, The Life of a Single Mom, YWMC Greater Baton Rouge, Habitat for Humanity and the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank.
“We began the 1989 World Tour in Louisiana, and the wonderful fans there made us feel completely at home,” Swift said in a statement. “The fact that so many people in Louisiana have been forced out of their own homes this week is heartbreaking.”
Swift also made a “very sizable” donation to the Houston Food Bank in 2017 to support the survivors of Hurricane Harvey. Swift reportedly made the donation in honor of her mother, Andrea Swift, who graduated from the University of Houston.
Last year, Swift donated $1 million to the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee’s Middle Tennessee Emergency Relief Fund to support Tennessee residents impacted by a series of tornadoes and thunderstorms that left at least six people dead, 50 injured and hundreds of structures damaged or destroyed.
Then, earlier this year, gunmen opened fire during the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory parade, killing one and injured 22. Swift, who has been in a relationship with Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce since September of last year, donated $100,000 via GoFundMe to support the family of the woman killed during the shooting. (Kelce matched her donation.)
Health
Every year, the Academy of Country Music names an Entertainer of the Year and matches their donation to an organization of the winner’s choice. In 2011, the academy selected Taylor Swift. She donated $25,000 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. ACM matched her donation.
That same year, Swift released a song titled “Ronan,” which she wrote about a young boy who died from cancer. Swift pledged to donate all the proceeds from the song to cancer charities. Ronan’s mother, Maya Ronan, established The Ronan Foundation to fund more effective treatments for childhood and cancer. She has said that Swift continues to support the foundation.
Swift also gifted $50,000 to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Cancer Center in 2014. The hospital stated the funds would be used to “create specialized programming for teens” undergoing cancer treatment, starting with an initiative to establish a music therapy cart that would allow patients to create and produce their own music.
In 2016, Swift donated $100,000 to the V Foundation for Cancer Research, which was founded by broadcaster and basketball coach Jim Valvano to fund research to “declare victory over cancer.”
Swift has also donated to the World Health Organization to support COVID-relief efforts and urged her fans to do the same.
Music
Unsurprisingly for a musician of her stature, Swift has been active in supporting music-related causes. In 2012, Swift, who began her career in the country music scene, donated $4 million to build a music education center at the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum. The center, which opened in 2013 and was named the Taylor Swift Education Center in her honor, includes three classrooms, a videoconference lab and an interactive gallery.
Swift also donated $100,000 to the Nashville Symphony, which stated that the funds would help the community activities of the orchestra’s musicians, including visiting local classrooms, providing instrument lessons and performing concerts in public parks.
According to a report from CNN, Swift has donated several of her guitars to charity auctions. One autographed guitar sold at auction earlier this year raised $25,000 for MusiCares, a nonprofit founded by The Recording Academy, which provides services to people working in the music industry, including around mental health and addiction recovery, financial assistance during medical crises, and support for basic living expenses, as well as programs that address affordable housing, career development and legal issues.
Other guitars sold at auction have raised funds for the GRAMMY Museum and ACM Lifting Lives, which is the philanthropic arm of the Academy of Country Music Awards.
Animals
A noted animal lover, Swift pledged in 2015 to donate the proceeds from her “Wildest Dreams” music video to the African Parks Foundation of America, a nonprofit conservation organization that partners with governments and local communities to provide long-term management of 22 protected areas in 12 countries, including Angola, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Rwanda and Zimbabwe.
For her 33rd birthday in 2022, Swift sent “a sizable donation” to Beth Stern’s cat rescue group, Beth’s Furry Friends. She also made a donation to Kitten Rescue LA. Last year, the Williamson County Animal Center in Franklin, Tennessee, thanked Swift for a “generous donation.”
Other support
Other donations include $70,000 worth of books to the Reading Public Library of Pennsylvania, $50,000 to support public schools in New York, and $75,000 to her former high school to refurbish its auditorium.
Swift has also participated in numerous fans’ GoFundMe campaigns, which include covering medical and education expenses.
