Dolly Parton receives philanthropy award for children’s book programme

Dolly Parton was jokingly uncharitable after the crowd at the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy ceremony tried singing along during her acceptance speech.

“That was terrible,” the Grammy-winning country superstar said after a muted sing-along of Books, Books, the song she wrote to support her Imagination Library initiative.

That philanthropic programme, which provides children under five with a free book every month, was one of the reasons she was part of this year’s class of Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy recipients, as well as her donation to coronavirus vaccine research in 2020 that helped develop the Moderna vaccine.

“I’m very proud and honoured to be a part of anything that is going to make the world a better place,” Parton said, adding that she was pleased to be celebrated along with Dallas entrepreneur Lyda Hill, Kenyan industrialist Manu Chandaria, and Lynn and Stacy Schusterman, from the Oklahoma investment family.

The ceremony at Gotham Hall, New York, celebrated the 20th anniversary of the award, which was established in 2001 as the Nobel Prize of philanthropy.

To mark the milestone, which was postponed a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Carnegie institutions launched the Carnegie Catalyst award to “celebrate the transformative power of human kindness”.

The award went to World Central Kitchen, the anti-hunger non-profit founded by chef Jose Andres.

Stacy Schusterman, chair of the Schusterman Family Philanthropies, said she was proud to accept the award with her mother, Lynn, as the first mother-daughter team to be honoured in the award’s history.

However, she said there is also an urgent need for philanthropy to be more collaborative and to take on more challenges to improve society.

“The US was founded with ideals we have yet to realise,” she said in her acceptance speech. “When we say, ‘All men are created equal,’ it is clear ‘men’ does not yet mean all Americans, including women, gender expansive people, and all ethnicities, races and religions.”

The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation was established in 1987 to invest in systemic change in the United States and Israel on matters of justice and equity.

When Charles died in 2000, Lynn Schusterman took over the foundation, expanding its work and becoming an outspoken advocate for inclusion, especially for the LGBTQ community. In 2018, their daughter Stacy Schusterman took over the foundation, which changed its name last year to Schusterman Family Philanthropies.