Dolly Parton has received a $100 million award from Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos to donate to her favorite charities.
The country music icon has become the latest recipient of the Courage and Civility award at the Bezos Awards on Friday.
Bezos, the world’s second-richest person, announced the news on Friday along with his partner, news anchor Lauren Sanchez.
The prestigious award recognizes “leaders who aim high, find solutions, and who always do it with civility,” said Lauren.
On Instagram, alongside a video of their speech before awarding the grant to the legendary star, Lauren hailed Dolly as “a woman who gives with her heart and leads with love and compassion in every aspect of her work.”
She added, “We can’t wait to see all the good that you’re going to do with this $100 million award.”
Dolly Parton receives $100m for a charity of her choice
After the announcement, Dolly can be seen joining the stage before hugging Bezos and blurting out, “Wow! Did you say $100 million?”
“I think people who are in a position to help should put their money where their heart is. I will do my best to do good things with this money,” said Dolly, who this month was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
The 76-year-old has since retweeted the video with the same caption.
Dolly joins previous recipients of the Bezos Award, activist Van Jones and chef and humanitarian Jose Andres.
As a longtime activist, kindness has always been at the top of Dolly’s agenda.
Dolly Parton’s philanthropic work
With countless donations and endless support for causes such as children’s literacy, philanthropy is just as important to Dolly as her country music.
In 1995, she launched the Imagination Library to boost literacy among children. The initiative has gifted more than 193 million free books to children.
In addition to her Imagination Library, Dolly donated $1 million towards coronavirus vaccine research in 2020.
Earlier this year, The Independent reported that Dolly’s theme park Dollywood will now pay for the college tuition of staff who want to chase their dreams of studying.
What’s more, in 2021, Dolly revealed that she invested her royalties from Whitney Houston’s cover of I Will Always Love You into a Black community in Nashville, as Fox News reports.
During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, the country music icon said she used the money she made from the iconic song to buy a “big office complex.”
Parton earned at least $10 million from the track in the 1990s, Forbes estimated last year.