Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie continue to put their money where their mouths are when it comes to charity. Their Jolie Pitt Foundation’s 2010 tax filing just became available. Of the over $2.3 million they gave away in 2010, $1 million went to Doctors without Borders treating patients in Haiti. But sometimes it’s the little things that count, too. Brad paid $3,000 toward a funeral for beloved New Orleans civic leader and his friend, Pamela Dashiell, who died unexpectedly at age 61 in December 2009. Dashiell had been a leader in New Orleans’s famous Lower 9th Ward where the most damage occurred from Hurricane Katrina. Big donation are wonderful, but something like that kind of breaks your heart.
The Jolie Pitt Foundation is also kind of a template for smart giving. For example, under a micro financing plan they loaned 201 needy Cambodians $21,000 for small businesses to purchase crop seeds and agricultural tools– a similar program to Kiva.org. All the money has been paid back.
Their largest expenditures went to SOS Childrens Villages ($250,000) and to other children’s causes around the world. But they also donated $200,000 to Drury University in Springfield, Missouri –Brad’s hometown– and $15,000 to Operation Blankets of Love in Granada Hills, California–they help rescue pets and abandoned animals.
The foundation noted that even though they have a fair market value of over $6 million, 2010 was a year of “contraction,” leading to fewer donations. (“Tree of Life” and “In the Land of Blood and Honey” weren’t exactly blockbusters.) Still they noted that their donations repesented 25% of their assets–which is highly generous.
Read also: http://www.showbiz411.com/2011/08/01/brad-pitt-angelina-jolie-shelled-out-5-mil-to-charity-in-2009
