{"id":2515540,"date":"2026-07-24T13:46:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T13:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2515540"},"modified":"2026-07-24T13:46:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T13:46:06","slug":"ariana-grande-launches-brighter-days-ahead-foundation-to-support-causes-she-connects-with","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/ariana-grande-launches-brighter-days-ahead-foundation-to-support-causes-she-connects-with\/","title":{"rendered":"Ariana Grande launches Brighter Days Ahead Foundation to support causes she connects with"},"content":{"rendered":"

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For years, pop star Ariana Grande gave away money, mostly quietly and without much structure. There were annual gifts to England\u2019s Royal Manchester Children\u2019s Hospital. Sometimes a night\u2019s performance proceeds were handed to nonprofit groups. She anonymously funded a holiday gift drive for transgender young people in addition to launching a $3 million fundraising event for transgender youths in 2022.<\/p>\n

Now those scattered acts of giving have a name and a public face: the Brighter Days Ahead Foundation. Launched in May, it will focus on causes Grande has advocated for in the past, including LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive health, immigrant rights, and mental health. Grande is doing this at a moment when philanthropic support for these causes is eroding, said Shauna Nep, Grande\u2019s philanthropic adviser.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing the support for the kinds of issues she cares about going down drastically and the attacks going up aggressively,\u201d Nep said.<\/p>\n

This summer, Grande is using her Eternal Sunshine Tour to fund and promote the foundation, highlighting national and local nonprofits at each tour stop. Names of her grantee organizations are shown on screens in the center of the arena during the pre-show countdown. And fans who donate to the nonprofit can enter a sweepstake for a chance to win a trip to see her final tour date in London.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fan experience is still completely intact,\u201d Nep said. \u201cWe\u2019re meeting them where they are instead of taking them away from anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tour funds will be split among the featured local organizations, though none have been distributed yet. The grants announced so far have come entirely from Grande\u2019s personal giving, a foundation spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

In many ways, Grande, who also starred in the \u201cWicked\u201d movies, is following in the footsteps of earlier generations of entertainers who lent their names to once controversial causes like HIV\/AIDS and created their own foundations to help move large sums of money.<\/p>\n

But today, celebrities\u2019 platforms are larger than ever, giving them even more sway, noted Genevieve Shaker, who teaches courses on celebrity philanthropy and fundraising leadership at Indiana University\u2019s Lilly School of Philanthropy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past, prior to social media, celebrities might be more dependent on traditional media to share stories about what they\u2019re doing,\u201d she said. \u201cNow they have their own kind of media empire where they can leverage lots of channels to communicate, including about philanthropy and causes and nonprofits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonprofit Trans Lifeline is grateful for celebrity support <\/h2>\n

Trans Lifeline, which runs a crisis hotline for transgender people, is one of the nonprofits Grande has supported. The group has received $125,000 total \u2014 $75,000 in emergency funding last June and $50,000 when the foundation formally launched in May.<\/p>\n

The money helped Trans Lifeline relaunch a microgrants program that distributed $100,000 directly to trans people across the country in partnership with five grassroots organizations, said Dante Alviar Horton, its executive director. Some of the funding also went toward improving benefits for the organization\u2019s direct service crisis workers.<\/p>\n

Trans Lifeline relies almost entirely on individual donors. Visibility gained from celebrity supporters has helped sustain the group, Alviar Horton said. He pointed to Trans Lifeline\u2019s recent collaboration with designer Conner Ives on the \u201cProtect the Dolls\u201d T-shirt campaign, which raised more than $500,000 after celebrities like Pedro Pascal began wearing the shirts publicly.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI was grateful that there were people in the celebrity sphere that cared enough to be like, \u2018This matters,\u2019\u201d Alviar Horton said.<\/p>\n

Celebrity philanthropy has often been dismissed as image management, allowing entertainers to have red carpet moments without putting much money or thought behind their advocacy efforts. Grande resisted creating a formal foundation for years for exactly that reason, Nep said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe does not want anyone to think that she thinks of herself as a philanthropist,\u201d Nep said. \u201cShe knows she\u2019s an artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Nep, who has worked with the singer since 2018, encouraged Grande to formalize her giving so she could strategically move money to nonprofit groups and more easily collaborate with funding partners. <\/p>\n

Grande\u2019s Brighter Days Ahead Foundation is a fiscally sponsored project of the Entertainment Industry Foundation, a public charity established in 1942 to support Hollywood\u2019s philanthropic efforts. It allows celebrities, including Charlize Theron and Olivia Rodrigo, to easily create nonprofits to raise and distribute funds.<\/p>\n

The largest of her foundation\u2019s four funds is \u201cProtect and Defend,\u201d which supports organizations doing legal and legislative work for transgender youths, immigrants, and reproductive rights. The foundation is the largest funder for several of the grassroots organizations it supports and typically provides unrestricted grants. These groups typically get little support from institutional and government funders. Transgender-focused organizations, specifically, have seen funding dwindle as needs increase, Nep noted.<\/p>\n

Grande\u2019s advocacy looks to meet the moment<\/h2>\n

Grande has been a longtime advocate for causes at the center of her philanthropy. In 2019, she donated roughly $250,000 in concert proceeds to Planned Parenthood after several states passed abortion restrictions. She has publicly discussed her struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression, expressed appreciation for her gay and transgender fans, and has spoken out against the Trump administration\u2019s immigration policies.<\/p>\n

Grande\u2019s activism and personal connection to these issues echo an earlier era when celebrities led the charge on funding for AIDS and HIV, Shaker said. Elizabeth Taylor co-founded the American Foundation for AIDS Research, or amfAR, in 1985 after watching friends suffer from HIV\/AIDS and its stigma. For similar reasons, singer Elton John founded the Elton John AIDS Foundation in 1992, the same year he first publicly identified himself as gay.<\/p>\n

The political climate facing transgender people today rivals what HIV\/AIDS advocates confronted decades ago, said Anne Aslett, CEO of the Elton John AIDS Foundation.<\/p>\n

Back in the 1980s and \u201990s, John was watching close friends like singer Freddie Mercury succumb to AIDS-related illnesses, she said.<\/p>\n

It was \u201creally, really tough\u201d to raise money for HIV\/AIDS work among the broader public, including within the entertainment industry, she said. Because of his global stardom, John was able to humanize the cause for people, even those who didn\u2019t share his views on politics or sexuality, Aslett said.<\/p>\n

From the outset, the foundation was shaped by his authentic interest in supporting AIDS research and his insistence on listening to people with lived experience of the epidemic, Aslett said. That is what has helped sustain the organization for more than three decades, she said. But that personal interest and connection aren\u2019t enough to really drive philanthropic success.<\/p>\n

\u201cArtists are hard-wired to pay attention to human emotion,\u201d Aslett said. \u201cThey\u2019re very empathetic. But that alone isn\u2019t enough. They have to have a good structure underneath to make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Stephanie Beasley<\/a><\/span> is fellowship director and a senior writer at the Chronicle of Philanthropy, where you can read the full article<\/a><\/span>. This article was provided to The Associated Press by the Chronicle of Philanthropy as part of a partnership to cover philanthropy and nonprofits supported by the Lilly Endowment. The Chronicle is solely responsible for the content. For all of AP\u2019s philanthropy coverage, visit https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/philanthropy<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n