Jay-Z is worth $420 million dollars according to Forbes. No doubt he's worked hard for it. The question is, when you're that wealthy do you have an obligation to give back to those less fortunate? Or at the very least break off a chunk of cash for your own charity?
Those are questions Jay-Z is probably thinking about today after The Daily published a report claiming the superstar rapper made $63 million dollars in 2010, but only gave $6,431 to his own charity. The Daily came up with those numbers by examining tax records for the Shawn Carter Scholarship Fund.
Hov's wife, Beyonce, reportedly made $87 million dollars that same year, but did not donate any money at all to the Foundation.
According to the report, the average American gives about 3.5 percent of their income to charity. Jay-Z gave about 0.01 percent of his estimated income to his own charity in 2010.
The Foundation was established in 2003 by Jay and his mother, Gloria Carter. According to it's mission statement "Shawn Carter Scholars are studying at nearly 100 institutions of higher learning throughout the nation." Scholarships awarded help students with "the costs of books and lab fees, food, travel and other self-care expenses." But where exactly is the money to fund these endeavors coming from if Jay-Z is contributing so little?
Hov's representative, Jana Fleishman, told The Daily that the rapper contributes in other ways.
“Jay, along with his family, provided office support, overhead support, [mother] Mrs. Gloria Carter’s 100% effort and time, computers, FedEx expenses, accounting, and treasury function support. This was at no cost to the charity,” Fleishman said.
The Daily noted that tax records show the charity only had to pay $1,209 for office expenses, $1,401 for telephone, and $4,696 in other expenses in 2010.
Fleishman also said that in 2011 Jay-Z helped raise $1.25 million for the charity at its Carnival at Pier 54 event. The Daily couldn't verify those numbers because tax records for 2011 are not yet available.
To be fair to Hov he is playing two Carnegie Hall concerts for free (the first was last night, the second is tonight). Proceeds are being spit between the United Way of New York City and The Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation, but it's not known exactly how much money that will translate into for the foundation.
To read the rest of the report head over to The Daily.
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