Dolly Parton and Eric Church are among the most generous country music stars!
That’s according to Time’s first-ever TIME100 Philanthropy List.
Parton and Church were the only two people on the 100-person list that are part of the country music community. And they weren’t just recognized for writing big checks.
According to Time, both made the list because of their “visionary approaches to shaping the future of giving.”
Dolly Parton Earns Spot in Time’s ‘Titans’ Category
Dolly Parton earned a spot in Time’s “Titans” category for her decades-long track record of consistently giving back and stepping up in a crisis.
In a post on Time’s Instagram account featuring Dolly’s picture from Time’s philanthropy issue, the caption reads, “@dollyparton, major donor to COVID-19 vaccine research and creator of the Dollywood Foundation, which supports initiatives to keep kids in school and make sure they can read.”
The Time article about Dolly begins, “Country music icon Dolly Parton has been giving almost as long as she has been singing.”
The article highlights the legendary singer’s Dollywood Foundation and her Imagination Library that “has sent more than 270 million free, age-appropriate books to children under five in thousands of locales across the U.S. as well as in Canada, the U.K., Ireland and Australia.”
It also notes how diverse Dolly’s giving is, writing, “Parton’s philanthropy, though often focused in her home state, is as eclectic as her music”- citing her $1-million dollar donation to develop a COVID vaccine and her efforts to help victims of natural disasters like the wildfire in the Smoky Mountains and flooding due to Hurricane Helene in East Tennessee.
Time Names Eric Church a ‘Trailblazer’
Time writes that Hurricane Helene relief efforts are a major reason why Eric Church made it onto the magazine’s list as well.
The singer is named in the “Trailblazers” section for his commitment to helping the people living in the region of North Carolina, where he grew up, after it was ravaged by the storm.
Church helped organize the Concert for Carolina alongside singer Luke Combs. The benefit raised more than $24-million for relief efforts, earning both singers the CRS 2025 Artist Humanitarian Award.
According to Time, the Nashville-based singer actually continues to make his home in North Carolina as well, spending about half the year living in Avery County in an “extremely rural, mountainous, and low-income area of his home state.”
Church told Time, “The mountains have meant so much to me creatively. That’s the place my soul rests, where I go to heal myself and let the world calm down.”
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Dolly Parton & Eric Church Among Most Generous