How Dolly Parton Uses Her $650 Million Net Worth To Help Those in Need by Donating Books, Money and More
The sparkles are only the beginning when it comes to this beloved country legend
With an estimated net worth of $650 million, it would make total sense if country music superstar Dolly Parton spent it all on superficial things. But the truth is, while we all know she loves her makeup, wigs and sparkles, we’re just as aware that she loves to give back. Below, we have rounded up the best moments that celebrate how much the “Jolene” singer helps other people by donating some of her well-earned money. Read on for more.
The Dollywood Foundation
Created in 1988, the Dollywood Foundation is one of Parton’s most beloved charities. It was created to help high school kids stay in school and, according to their website, “in the early 90s, Dolly promised every 7th-grade and 8th-grade student she would personally give them $500 if they graduated from high school. This effort, called the Buddy Program, reduced the dropout rate for these two classes from 35% to 6%. More importantly, the program catalyzed the community to provide additional resources to sustain this improvement in the dropout rate.”
Following that, they have since shifted to helping education as a whole and have even created five $15,000 scholarships to help “the county’s high school seniors further their education at any accredited university.”
They also award several additional scholarships to students in need when necessary.
Dolly Parton donates to natural disasters
Over the years, Parton has donated to several natural disaster funds, with the most recent one being to Hurricane Helen victims in October 2024. Parton said that she would be giving $1 million to the nonprofit Mountain Ways Foundation.
During that time, Parton also announced that her businesses, The Dollywood Foundation and Dollywood Parks & Resorts, would match the donation, bringing the total to $2 million.
“These are special people here; they’re my people,” Parton said at a press conference in Newport, Tennessee, per CBS News. “I feel like all people are my people, but everyone here grew up in the mountains just like I did, so of course I have a close connection to them. I can’t stand to see anyone hurting, so I wanted to do what I could to help after these terrible floods.”
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library
Like so many others, Parton loves to read, and 30 years ago she made that love public by creating Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. It centers around gifting free books to children all over the world and according to their website, they have donated 287,502,435 thus far.
“When I was growing up in the hills of East Tennessee, I knew my dreams would come true. I know there are children in your community with their own dreams. They dream of becoming a doctor or an inventor or a minister. Who knows, maybe there is a little girl whose dream is to be a writer and singer,” Parton said on their website. “The seeds of these dreams are often found in books and the seeds you help plant in your community can grow across the world.”
Dolly Parton donates to the medical field
In September 2020, Parton donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville to help develop a vaccine and potential cure for the COVID-19 virus.
“My longtime friend Dr. Naji Abumrad, who’s been involved in research at Vanderbilt for many years, informed me that they were making some exciting advancements towards research of the coronavirus for a cure,” she wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter) at the time.
Following that, Parton did get the Moderna vaccine in March of 2021, with her saying per The New York Times, “Dolly gets a dose of her own medicine.”
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