Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce have left staff at some American nonprofits stunned, by making $26 million (£19.5 million) in donations to various charities.
The singing superstar and football player are both known for supporting charitable causes. Swift has built a track record of giving across education, disaster relief, food insecurity, and music programmes. Kelce has focused his philanthropy on youth development and community support through his foundation work.
Across food banks, children’s hospitals, education nonprofits and animal welfare, leaders say they learned about the couple’s charitable donations the same way: suddenly, directly and often through a phone call or message.
At City Harvest, New York City’s largest food rescue organisation, the news landed like a lifeline amid a raft of federal funding cuts. It confirmed a $1 million (£750,000) donation from the couple, which its CEO says will help provide food to more than 2.4 million New Yorkers this summer.
“We are incredibly grateful for Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s generous $1 million donation to City Harvest,” Jilly Stephens gushed. “This donation is a love letter to New York, and a bold commitment to our efforts to ensure that no New Yorker goes hungry.”
In Kansas City, Harvesters The Community Food Network confirmed another $1 million donation, which it equates to roughly two million meals.
Matt Hamer, communications manager, said Swift and Kelce’s donation came “at an incredible time, as food insecurity is higher than it’s been in a decade”.
For the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, CEO Melissa Cherney told People magazine their initial reaction was disbelief, followed by a scramble to confirm what they were hearing.
“We were speechless. We felt like we needed to pinch each other because it was sort of our Wildest Dreams come true, if I could use a Taylor Swift song.”
