On a bright Thursday in Los Angeles, about 400 people filed into the darkened screening room of the Director’s Guild of America, located on a buzzy curve of Sunset Strip, dropping their paper coffee cups into the trashcan on the way. They’d come for an inaugural Social Impact Summit, where, as event cohost The Hollywood Reporter put it, “some of the entertainment industry’s biggest names — celebrities who are committed to giving back — come together to talk about the role Hollywood can play in making a difference on local, national and global levels.”
There were more philanthropy industry professionals than recognizable celebs in attendance, and the room had the chatty energy of a conference of people who know each other well. The summit’s main content was three panel discussions, each with a different topic, moderator, and half a dozen speakers sitting on stage, followed by a presentation of The Hollywood Reporter’s Philanthropic Organization of the Year award, which went to the nonprofit Feeding America.
But first: Sharon Stone.
Craig Cichy, executive director of Social Impact Fund, the event’s other co-host and last year’s award winner, kicked off the event by introducing the “actor, author, painter and activist.” Stone, 66, known for, among other things, intense, sultry roles during her decades-long acting career, including her star turn in the 1992 film “Basic Instinct,” stepped onstage in what seemed to me the philanthropy-sector version of an Academy Awards dress — floor-length gown of petal pink, full skirt, modest sleeves, mock wrap-dress waist.
Stone talked about her childhood in the country, living on $14,000 a year and feeling wealthy, her family’s attitude toward charity — “which we called being a good neighbor” — and leaving Christmas gifts on the porch for a poor family. “It wasn’t called philanthropy. It was called love,” she said.
She launched into an off-the-cuff disquisition on love, which she said begins with forgiveness, which begins with self-forgiveness, which also involves facing shame. I was definitely thinking, “These Hollywood celebs drinking their $20 detox smoothies high in the hills up there float around in some airy-fairy alternative reality.”
But then Stone talked about trauma, her experience as a field worker for HIV/AIDS, and her early belief that she could pick up where Elizabeth Taylor left off and somehow find a cure, somehow “get it done.” She traveled and asked for money, damaging her career along the way, she said. “I saw the world, and I really learned what philanthropy meant. And it meant forgiving myself and forgiving others. There were a lot of people who really needed a lot of fucking forgiveness.”
It was a dynamic, hair-raising diatribe, and Stone ended by saying, “If you cannot forgive, you cannot serve,” and then asking us each to look at the person sitting next to us and forgive them, which, you know, we did. It wound up feeling intense and raw and pretty awesome. If she weren’t a famous actor, you would think, “This woman should be a famous actor.”
Shining the spotlight on HIV/AIDS
The first panel focused on corporate and Hollywood giving to fuel the fight against HIV/AIDS. Actor Wilson Cruz, known for roles on “My So-Called Life” and “Star Trek: Discovery,” and for his advocacy for gay youth, moderated the panel, which included actor Charlize Theron, who, it turns out, is very tall, very thin and ridiculously beautiful.
Theron, winner of an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, among other accolades, grew up in South Africa, a background that she said made her feel connected to how AIDS affected a generation. She founded the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project in 2007. The project now has 17 partners and does grantmaking, convening and storytelling.
A major theme that arose during the conversation was that many young people don’t know HIV/AIDS still exists, or, in some cases, don’t even know what it is. Theron and Neo Mehajane, program director for HIVSA’s Health Systems Strengthening, both talked about the fact that high rates of HIV infection intersect with other, critical issues that riddle places like South Africa — inequality, poverty, poor access to education, intimate partner violence and rape.
Philanthropy, too, has turned its back on HIV/AIDS to a degree. A recent guest post on IP looked at the decrease in funding as of 2021: “According to data published by Funders Concerned About AIDS, since reaching a high watermark in 2008, HIV-related giving has decreased a staggering 17% when adjusted for inflation. The report also shows an ever-increasing number of funders leaving the space.” Updated data released this week by Funders Concerned About AIDS shows that total philanthropic support for HIV/AIDS decreased by another 6% between 2021 and 2022.
So what role should celebs play in philanthropy?
Carmen Villar, vice-president for ESG and corporate citizenship at Gilead Sciences, an event sponsor and anti-HIV drug manufacturer, asked the major question underpinning the afternoon’s event: “How important is it to have superstars [like Theron, who was sitting next to her] involved with these issues?”
Her answer: Very. Celebrities’ platforms can do a lot to turn attention to ongoing crises like HIV/AIDS. Villar talked about meeting a 13-year-old on an airplane who had never heard of AIDS. “People who have big, beautiful profiles in the world can help us bridge that gap in knowledge.”
At IP, we’ve been tracking how celebrities use their profiles to support causes they care about — not only Hollywood stars, but also professional athletes, prominent musicians and more. At a time when celebs have abundant and interconnected ways to communicate instantly and personally with their fans, fame can be a more powerful tool than money in the hands of the high-profile few.
Theron said that she’s been working to feel comfortable with her “bigger stage” and doing the right thing with it. “I’m lucky enough to get myself into a lot of rooms where a lot of people can be real actors of change. It’s taking advantage of that in the best possible way.”
The second panel focused specifically on “Leveraging Hollywood for Raising Funds and Awareness.” Moderator Stacey Wilson Hunt, a contributing editor at THR, said on-screen talent feel pressure to choose a cause. I’ve heard this idea before, along with the notion that celebs should choose charities that support their “brand.” But this event lacked that utilitarian, careerist sentiment. Like Theron and Stone, the second panel’s participants spoke in emotional terms about being connected to specific causes.
Uzo Aduba, an American actor best known for her role in “Orange Is the New Black,” said that she became an ambassador for Heifer International, which focuses on ending hunger, because the war in Nigeria, her parents’ homeland, had seen the use of starvation as a tactic.
Actor Thomas Sadoski, known for his roles in “The Newsroom” and “Life in Pieces” (and also for being married to actor Amanda Seyfried), talked about getting involved with Refugees International and then War Child, which advocates for children facing the effects of war and conflict, and provides psychological and other support. Sadoski spoke passionately about War Child, and he and Seyfried have used their celebrity to spread the word about the cause.
Sadoski also gave a “sermon” against “slacktivists,” influencers or celebrities who use social media to amplify their involvement in charity work, benefiting themselves more than the people who are suffering. But others disagreed with this critique, saying that any attention to important causes is good attention.
Cichy, who started Social Impact Fund to serve as a fiscal sponsor for onscreen talent and others in the entertainment industry looking to get into philanthropy, weighed in: “Philanthropy always starts with something personal. I’ve never found that not to be true. Something you’ve experienced yourself, or your family, or strikes a chord with you.”
This third panel, moderated by THR’s philanthropy issue editor Degen Pener, focused on “innovative players and platforms” in philanthropy. Panelists included Ben Erwin, CEO of Charitybuzz, Muneer Panjwani, CEO of Engage for Good, and Emily Rasmussen, founder and CEO of Grapevine. All three spoke about giving approaches that fall outside of traditional philanthropy, such as giving circles, which Grapevine facilitates, and events, the focus of Charitybuzz. Rather than dissing traditional philanthropy, the panelists conveyed real energy and excitement around new ways to give.
For instance, Panjwani questioned the conventional wisdom that suggests Americans are giving less time and money, insisting instead that there is a lot of informal giving that doesn’t show up on the 2% reported on our tax returns.
The event ended with actor and advocate Julie Bowen presenting Feeding America CEO Claire Babineaux-Fontenot with the philanthropic organization of the year award. And then, after a long event that ran longer, a cocktail reception.
My takeaway is that celebrity philanthropists face similar quandaries about the role of the public self in their giving as do less famous folks new to the scale of wealth that calls for an organized philanthropic approach. These issues are distinct from the challenges of institutional foundations with layer upon layer of professional staff. Like many donors who give in a public way, celebrities grapple with the benefits and risks of being out in front of their causes, and potential damage from detractors.
Stone, Theron, Cruz and Sadoski struck me as more emotionally forward versions of other passionate private funders I’ve met, people gut-punched by inequity and violence, and, replete with riches, taking a personal, sometimes idiosyncratic approach to lift up others however they can.
