paisleypark4 said:

oh come down, folks are just posting what comes to mind...

it trips me out..this site has become a place where people post things and expect only comments...it's weird. what happened to celebrating diversity?

sosgemini said:

The Huffington post article was actually misleading. It talked about how much money her Ray of Light Foundation gave to charity, not how much she as individual gives to different charities. She donates money to the Ray of Light Foundation, but she also donates money to other charities as an individual. The ROL foundation as a not for profit charity has to make public their finances and tax filings. However tax returns of individuals are not available to the public. On your individual tax returns you write down all the charitable contributions you made to any organization because those are deductions. But there is no way the public can get access to the tax returns of individual celebrities to see how much they donated.
So she donated the $400,000 to the ROL foundation, but she most likely donated more to other charities.
So it's not fair to say Madonna as an individual only donated $400,000 to all charities.

Here's the article.

http://showbiz411.blogs.t...t-charity/

It clearly refers to the tax filing of the Ray of Light Foundation, not the total contributions of Madonna as an individual.

Glindathegood said:

i'd be interested to know how much she actually donated herself. thanks for posting this article though.

It is moving to see people contribute!

sosgemini said:

I don't know how you can find that out. Most celebrities don't release their tax returns to the public. The only "celebrities" that I know of who regularly release their tax returns are politicians like President Obama not singers or actors. I think people running for office are required to make that public by some kind of ethics in government or campaign finance laws. But of course those don't apply to singers.

sosgemini said:

She donates her TIME, which, as you know, is money. Also, she is lending her image to the charity, otherwise you wouldn't think of her when you read the words ``Raising Malawi''.

And the other celebrities listed on Roger Freedman's blog don't give their time?

re: tax disclosures, yeah Glinda, your right...but I wonder if charities have to disclose where they get their funds from...Still, for tax purposes (and to earn interest) most wealthy people use trust or foundations to dispense their contributions...i personally found that was the case in my dealings with donors...i just can't see madonna giving out of her own coffers.

sosgemini said:

No, I'm just saying that's probably the most valuable contribution to any charity.

That's all good and well, but what about the millions living in poverty in Brazil??? Is dude contributing this much to his country OR is this just a way for him to get in good with an international celeb and some good press at the same time???

sosgemini said:

I always thought the moment Madonna decided she needed to get in the charity game was right after the Live8 concert when Jo Wiley embarrassed her by asking her about her own involvement with the cause (which was basically nil). Madonna knew nothing about the issue and had never even been to Africa. Wiley pointed out that her peers like Bono and Chris Martin had done loads of work over there, often without any publicity. Madonna had nothing to report from her side. When she did get involved she kind of soiled it by using her newfound influence to buy babies there and have them delivered to her door by airmail.

mage used her vadge for some good work!

paisleypark4 said:

Madonna could donate $100 million of her fortune to this cause,and folks would still be rolling their eyes,saying things like...

Oh,she's just doing it for publicity

Well,why isn't she donating money to American charities?

She just wants to adopt a kid from Brazil,that's why she's doing this

$100 million?? Is that it?! Why not $200 million?? Her tours make ALOT of money!


it's funny how she gets criticized even when she does good things

SoulAlive said:

It's always a good thing to help the unfortunate!

I was also surprised she couldn´t put together 7 million considering how much money she makes and how expensive her tickets are.

PurpleGstring said: