Dolly Parton's philanthropy: Imagination

Dolly Parton's team announced her death on Tuesday and asked fans to donate to her Imagination Library instead of sending flowers. The singer's philanthropic work, spanning decades, included funding medical research, supporting disaster victims, and a global children's book program.

Her non-profit Dollywood Foundation, established in 1988, focuses on practical aid for education and communities. In the early 1990s, the foundation offered $500 to every seventh and eighth-grade student in her home Sevier County, Tennessee, if they graduated high school with a buddy for accountability. The foundation's website states this initiative reduced the local high school dropout rate from 35% to 6%.

Imagination Library's global reach

Inspired by her father Robert Lee Parton, who could not read or write, Parton launched the Imagination Library in 1995. The program mails a free book each month to children under five. It began in Sevier County and expanded to the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, and Australia. According to its website, it has distributed over 332.4 million books.

Eileen Driver, chair of the Stokesley Imagination Library in the UK, told BBC Radio Tees that Parton's vision for sharing stories was remarkable. Scottish National Party councillor Lee Mills, a self-described superfan, said he worked to bring the program to Dundee after his election. British author Selina Brown, whose book My Rice is Best was selected for distribution, told the BBC it was emotional to see 14,000 copies packed for posting, noting the importance of representation with her black protagonist.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Parton read books aloud in YouTube recordings for children. Linda Jinnette Cooper wrote on the library's Facebook page about one boy's surprised reaction upon learning Parton also sang: "You mean she sings, too?"

Medical and disaster philanthropy

In 2020, Parton donated $1 million to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville to support Covid-19 research. A portion funded an early-stage trial of the Moderna vaccine, which found it offered nearly 95% protection against severe Covid-19. She reimagined her song "Jolene" to promote vaccination, singing "vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, I'm begging of you, please don't hesitate," and publicly received an injection.

Her medical donations span years. A 2007 benefit concert raised $1 million for a new hospital and cancer centre in Sevier County, which includes a Dolly Parton Center for Women's Services. In 2017, she donated $1 million to Nashville's Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt after her niece was treated for leukaemia there. She gave another $1 million to the same hospital later for paediatric infectious disease research. Earlier this year, the East Tennessee Children's Hospital announced it would be renamed the Dolly Parton Children's Hospital after her partnership.

The Dollywood Foundation also supports disaster relief. After deadly 2016 wildfires in Sevier County, a Parton telethon featuring Kenny Rogers, Chris Stapleton, Reba McEntire, and Cyndi Lauper raised over $13 million; she later pledged $1,000 per month for six months to about 900 families who lost homes. In 2021, she helped raise $700,000 for Middle Tennessee flood victims. The foundation's scholarship program offers $15,000 each to five high school seniors pursuing a dream.

Her Dollywood theme park housed the world's largest sanctuary for non-releasable bald eagles, managed by the American Eagle Foundation; the bald eagle was removed from the endangered species list in 2007. In 2022, the foundation announced it would cover 100% of tuition and books for any Dollywood employee furthering their education.