Most of us knew Dolly Parton as the woman who could fill a stadium with a single song. But the legacy she leaves behind goes far beyond the music. Throughout her life, she donated millions of dollars to causes that helped real people, children learning to read, families who lost everything in a wildfire, researchers racing to stop a deadly virus.
In 2025, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized that work with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, an honorary Academy Award presented at the 16th Governors Awards.
In a recorded message played at the ceremony, Parton spoke about where it all started. “I grew up in a house with 12 kids,” she said. “Now, that alone teaches you how important sharing is. Don’t get me wrong, we didn’t have that much to share. But my mama and daddy showed me by example that the more you give, the more blessings come your way.”
She added, “I’ve tried my whole life to live by their example. And I’ve been blessed more than I ever dreamed possible. It makes me want to dream up new ways to help lift people up. And isn’t that what we’re supposed to be here for?”
Keeping Kids in School
Back in 1988, Parton started the Dollywood Foundation’s Buddy Program with a simple promise. Every seventh and eighth grader in her home county would receive $500 if they graduated from high school. The dropout rate in that county was 35 percent. After her program took hold, it fell to 6 percent.
She did not stop there. Through her foundation, she also offers five $15,000 scholarships each year to high school seniors in the same local county.
Helping After the Wildfires
In 2016, wildfires tore through Sevier County, Tennessee, destroying homes and upending lives. Parton launched the My People Fund through the Dollywood Foundation to help the people affected. The effort raised more than $12 million for those who lost so much.
A Free Book for Every Child
In 1995, Parton launched what may be her most far-reaching program. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library mails free books to children from birth through age five. What started in Tennessee has now reached children across the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.
As of 2026, the Imagination Library has sent out more than 332 million books. That is not a typo. Three hundred and thirty-two million books, one at a time, to children who needed them.
Funding the Fight Against Disease
When COVID-19 arrived in 2020, Parton donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The Dolly Parton COVID-19 Research Fund played a role in the development of a vaccine.
She later gave another $1 million to Vanderbilt for research into pediatric infectious diseases. As she told Good Morning America, “I love children. No child should ever have to suffer, and I’m willing to do my part to try and keep as many of them as I can as healthy and safe as possible.”
From a childhood with 12 kids and not much to share, she built something remarkable. And she did it one act of generosity at a time. We’ll miss you, Dolly.
