Madonna Gives $1 Mil to Her Shaky Malawi Charity, $90K to Sean Penn’s Haiti Foundation

Showbiz 411/December 28, 2015

By Roger Friedman

Madonna donated $1 million in 2014 to her Raising Malawi Foundation, a shaky group trying to improve its public persona after being linked with the cult Kabbalah Center for years.

Last year Madonna donated $1,250,000 directly to Kabbalah. This year, the $1 mil goes to Raising Malawi, which makes a lot of claims about work it’s doing in the impoverished African country from which Madonna adopted two children.

The Raising Malawi website gives little info about who’s running it, and what constitutes a board of directors. Their 2013 Form 990 just lists the singer, her manager, and accountant. The board had previously been stocked with Kabbalah Center execs and associates. At one point, millions of dollars went missing.

Madonna donates money through her tax free Ray of Light Foundation, which in 2014 also gave $89,898 to her ex husband Sean Penn’s J/P Haitian Relief Organization.

All together, Ray of Light donated $1.8 million to various groups, about $400,000 less than last year. On a positive note: Almost $450,000 went to groups from Michigan, Madonna’s home state including a boxing gym in her hometown of Traverse City. She gave $15,000, as usual, to the T.J. Martell Foundation, the record industry charity that funds cancer research. She didn’t give anything, at least through Ray of Light, to amFAR or the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

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