How Beyoncé Gives Back
Mariel Concepcion
Earlier this summer during a concert stop at the Izod Center in New Jersey, Beyoncé brought a little girl named Jada to the stage. While kneeling on the floor and holding in her arms a child who is battling leukemia, the 28-year-old singer dedicated to her the show's closer, "Halo."
According to the Make a Wish Foundation, which works with celebrities to grant wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions, that dedication was Wish No. 40 that Beyoncé has fulfilled during nine years of involvement with the group.
Although she's one of some 800 celebrities who granted wishes last year alone, according to Make a Wish media relations manager Brent Goodrich, Beyoncé is one of the most popular recipients of requests in recent years.
"She's obviously an admired performer, but also, she really makes the children feel like they're No. 1 when they meet," he says.
Make a Wish isn't the only way in which Beyoncé gives back. A few years ago, she teamed with her mother Tina, father Mathew and sister Solange Knowles to start their own family foundation: Survivor. The nonprofit organization is based in her hometown of Houston and assists those who have been displaced, are homeless or have been stricken by HIV/AIDS. The Survivor Foundation also started the Knowles-Rowland Center for Youth, a multipurpose community outreach facility in Houston.
"Most recently the organization assisted with survivors of Hurricane Katrina and helped find housing for those displaced by the disaster," says Andrea Nelson Meigs, Beyoncé's film agent at International Creative Management.
Her willingness to help doesn't stop there. Late last year, after watching the documentary "Very Young Girls," Beyoncé visited the Harlem headquarters of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, which produced the film and works to stop sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking of children.
"Her mother, Tina Knowles, reached out to us and said she'd never heard Beyoncé sound more passionate about something," GEMS founder/executive director Rachel Lloyd says.
"Two days later, Beyoncé came in and said she wanted to learn more and wanted to understand what the girls had been through. She was supposed to stay 15-45 minutes, but stayed five hours instead. At the end, we said a group prayer lead by her mother. It was very intense and emotional."
Since then, Beyoncé has become one of the faces of GEMS' national campaign "Girls Are Not for Sale," alongside Halle Berry and Demi Moore. And she arranged for girls from GEMS to get tickets and backstage passes this past summer for her concert at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J., as part of her I Am . . . Sasha Fierce tour.
On that tour, Beyoncé also teamed with the General Mills brand Hamburger Helper and Feeding America, which touts itself as the nation's largest domestic hunger-relief charity, for the "Show Your Helping Hand" campaign. The campaign sought to provide 3.5 million meals through local food banks by encouraging fan donations at her concerts.
"Her name came up because in various occasions Beyoncé had mentioned how Hamburger Helper was one of her all-time favorite comfort foods," General Mills VP Beth Brady says. "So, we thought there was no one more authentic for it than Beyoncé—giving back is true to her DNA."
This is the second time Beyoncé has joined forces with Feeding America, according to the charity's president/CEO Vicki Efsarra.
"For her 2007 tour, we had a food drive at every one one of her tour stops. For this past tour, she held a press event at all her shows to help promote the drive," she says, pointing out that hunger becomes most critical in America during the summer and winter, which is why she is in talks with Beyoncé to work together again this upcoming holiday season.
"She's just so beautiful, talented—she's so impressive and grounded and manages her career very well, but she's always striving to use her voice to try and influence good in the world," Efsarra adds. "Not all human beings find a way to do that."
Mariel Concepcion
Earlier this summer during a concert stop at the Izod Center in New Jersey, Beyoncé brought a little girl named Jada to the stage. While kneeling on the floor and holding in her arms a child who is battling leukemia, the 28-year-old singer dedicated to her the show's closer, "Halo."
According to the Make a Wish Foundation, which works with celebrities to grant wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions, that dedication was Wish No. 40 that Beyoncé has fulfilled during nine years of involvement with the group.
Although she's one of some 800 celebrities who granted wishes last year alone, according to Make a Wish media relations manager Brent Goodrich, Beyoncé is one of the most popular recipients of requests in recent years.
"She's obviously an admired performer, but also, she really makes the children feel like they're No. 1 when they meet," he says.
Make a Wish isn't the only way in which Beyoncé gives back. A few years ago, she teamed with her mother Tina, father Mathew and sister Solange Knowles to start their own family foundation: Survivor. The nonprofit organization is based in her hometown of Houston and assists those who have been displaced, are homeless or have been stricken by HIV/AIDS. The Survivor Foundation also started the Knowles-Rowland Center for Youth, a multipurpose community outreach facility in Houston.
"Most recently the organization assisted with survivors of Hurricane Katrina and helped find housing for those displaced by the disaster," says Andrea Nelson Meigs, Beyoncé's film agent at International Creative Management.
Her willingness to help doesn't stop there. Late last year, after watching the documentary "Very Young Girls," Beyoncé visited the Harlem headquarters of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, which produced the film and works to stop sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking of children.
"Her mother, Tina Knowles, reached out to us and said she'd never heard Beyoncé sound more passionate about something," GEMS founder/executive director Rachel Lloyd says.
"Two days later, Beyoncé came in and said she wanted to learn more and wanted to understand what the girls had been through. She was supposed to stay 15-45 minutes, but stayed five hours instead. At the end, we said a group prayer lead by her mother. It was very intense and emotional."
Since then, Beyoncé has become one of the faces of GEMS' national campaign "Girls Are Not for Sale," alongside Halle Berry and Demi Moore. And she arranged for girls from GEMS to get tickets and backstage passes this past summer for her concert at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J., as part of her I Am . . . Sasha Fierce tour.
On that tour, Beyoncé also teamed with the General Mills brand Hamburger Helper and Feeding America, which touts itself as the nation's largest domestic hunger-relief charity, for the "Show Your Helping Hand" campaign. The campaign sought to provide 3.5 million meals through local food banks by encouraging fan donations at her concerts.
"Her name came up because in various occasions Beyoncé had mentioned how Hamburger Helper was one of her all-time favorite comfort foods," General Mills VP Beth Brady says. "So, we thought there was no one more authentic for it than Beyoncé—giving back is true to her DNA."
This is the second time Beyoncé has joined forces with Feeding America, according to the charity's president/CEO Vicki Efsarra.
"For her 2007 tour, we had a food drive at every one one of her tour stops. For this past tour, she held a press event at all her shows to help promote the drive," she says, pointing out that hunger becomes most critical in America during the summer and winter, which is why she is in talks with Beyoncé to work together again this upcoming holiday season.
"She's just so beautiful, talented—she's so impressive and grounded and manages her career very well, but she's always striving to use her voice to try and influence good in the world," Efsarra adds. "Not all human beings find a way to do that."