X

Jeff Bezos Awards $100 Million Grant to Dolly Parton

The musician, who received the grant as part of Bezos' Courage and Civility Award, can use the money to give to charities of her choice.

Sarah Lord Writer
Sarah Lord covers TVs and home entertainment. Prior to joining CNET, Sarah served as the tech and electronic reviews fellow at Insider, where she wrote about everything from smart watches and wearables to tablets and e-readers. She began her career by writing laptop reviews as an intern and subsequent freelancer at Tom's Hardware. She is also a professional actor with many credits in theater, film and television.
Expertise TVs, Home Entertainment, Streaming, Computers Credentials
  • Member of Screen Actors Guild and Actors Equity Association
See full bio
Sarah Lord
2 min read
Dolly Parton, smiling

Dolly Parton says she hopes "to do good things with this money." 

 Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Jeff Bezos has named country music legend Dolly Parton as the third winner of his $100 million Courage and Civility Award, the Amazon founder and billionaire said in an interview with CNN on Saturday. Recipients of the award can use the money to support charities of their choice. 

Reacting to the award in a tweet, Parton said she hopes "to do good things with this money."

"I try to put my money where my heart is," she wrote on Saturday.

Last year, the award was given to chef Jose Andrés for his work making meals for Ukrainians and to climate advocate Van Jones. It is conferred without warning and is meant to honor those who have been courageous and unifying figures. 

"We couldn't have thought of someone better than to give this award to Dolly, and we know she's going to do amazing things with it,"  Lauren Sánchez, Jeff Bezos' partner, said to CNN. 

In the CNN interview, Bezos also said that he plans to give the majority of his $124 billion net worth to charity within his lifetime, but he didn't share any details as to how or when that might happen. He has previously committed $10 billion over 10 years to his climate-focused Bezos Earth Fund, which is chaired by Sánchez. 

Bezos has come under fire in the past for not signing the Giving Pledge, a public declaration from the world's richest citizens that they will give the majority of their fortunes to charity. MacKenzie Scott, his ex-wife, signed it in 2019. 

Scott has shaken up the philanthropy world by giving away almost $4 billion in less than a year.