written by Allison Neumeyer
Dolly Parton is a world-renowned singer-songwriter and a lesser-known philanthropist.
Dolly was born on January 19, 1946, in Locust, Tennessee. Dolly was raised surrounded by music living just on the cusp of the poverty line. Her music career started when she was just 10 years old. Parton has been performing publicly for nearly seventy years becoming one of the most celebrated and most successful country music stars. She is most known for her songs: Jolene (1973) and I Will Always Love You (1974) which Whitney Houston had covered in 1992 for the film The Bodyguard.  In 1999 she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 2006 she was selected to receive the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors. In 2011, she was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2022 she was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and was also awarded Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2022.
Through the riches she’s gained due to her musical and celebrity success, she’s given back to her own community and has donated to very notable causes through her Dollywood Foundation which she founded in 1988.
She started the foundation in her home county of Sevier County, Tennessee, with the goal of decreasing high school drop out rates. She then started the Buddy Program, in which Parton gave $500 to every seventh and eighth grader who finished high school. The initiative was extremely successful, the dropout rate declined from 35 percent to just 6 percent.
In 1995 through the Dollywood Foundation, Parton started the Imagination Library Initiative where one book each month was sent to every enrolled child in Sevier County from birth until their first year of school. The library was founded in honor of Parton’s father, who was unable to read as well as to increase literacy rates throughout the county.
In 2007 Dolly put together a benefit concert for a new hospital to be built in Sevier County. The concert raised $500,000, and both Dollywood and Parton’s Dixie Stampede dinner theater pledged $250,000 each to the project, for a total of $1 million. LeConte Medical Center opened in 2010 and features a 30,000-square-foot Dolly Parton Center for Women’s Services.
On multiple occasions, Dolly has given Vanderbilt University $1 Million dollar in donations, such proceeds over the years have been to help patients deal with medical costs, helped fund Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, and helped fund pediatric infectious disease research.Â
In 2022, Dollywood Co. announced that they would cover 100% of tuition, fees, and books for any employee who is furthering their education.
Dolly’s long history of philanthropy to better the livelihood, health, and education of those who make up the community who raised her is very moving.
References
Aniftos, Rania. (2023). A Timeline of Dolly Parton’s Good Deeds. Billboard. https://www.billboard.com/lists/dolly-parton-good-deeds-timeline/
Country Music Hall of Fame. (2022). Dolly Parton. Country Music Hall of Fame. https://www.countrymusichalloffame.org/hall-of-fame/dolly-parton
Glamboa, Glenn. (2022). Dolly Parton’s Donation Strategy Is To ‘Just Give From My Heart.’ PBS News Hour. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/dolly-partons-donation-strategy-is-to-just-give-from-my-heart
Library of Congress. (2002). Dolly Parton 1946-. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200152702/
Smith. (2024). Dolly Parton – Lessons Learned From Her Long-Time Philanthropy. Smith Legacy Law. https://smithlegacylaw.com/resources/insights/dolly-parton-lessons-learned-from-her-long-time-philanthropy/#:~:text=Parton%27s%20Charitable%20Giving&text=Her%20father%20was%20illiterate%2C%20and,were%20paired%20with%20a%20buddy
