General Discussion

Dylan was involved in the civil rights movement in the 1960s, and joined protest rallies and concerts. He won the “Tom Paine Award” from the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee in 1963.

He performed at George Harrison’s Concert For Bangladesh in 1971 – the first big rock concert organized by a musician to aid a cause.

Bob Dylan has supported the following charities listed on this site:

Amnesty International
City of Hope
End Hunger Network
Feeding America
K9 Connection
MusiCares
Music Rising

Meanwhile, crown prince of American folk music Bob Dylan has been earning headlines recently with a perfectly Dylan-esque speech at a charity gala held in his honor. The speech is interesting and beautiful in its way, and you can read it here, but much of the news coverage has blown breezily past the fact that MusiCares, the group that singled Dylan out as its 2015 Person of the Year and threw the star-studded party, was recognizing his many years of philanthropic efforts.

But wait, Bob Dylan: philanthropist? If that doesn’t quite seem right it may be because Dylan, though he has given generously to charities for many years, has hardly raised a finger to cultivate an image of himself as a philanthropist. On the contrary, there is reason to believe Dylan prefers anonymous charity; gossip tongues wagged in 2004 when Dylan made a low-key trip to an Irish children’s hospital which he had explicitly asked to be kept a secret (someone later leaked the story) and again in 2007 when it was discovered he had been singing in a California grade school (whose students thought he was just “Weird Guitar Guy”).

Indeed, over the years Dylan has donated many millions to charities like Amnesty International and Feeding America (which received all the U.S. royalties for his chart-topping 2009 Christmas album), but has done so with a minimum of fanfare or self-promotion. It seems entirely plausible that Dylan would lend his considerable resources to any number of causes on the condition of anonymity; there are untold other philanthropists who similarly prefer to operate behind the scenes.

The Giving Pledge appears to be saying that philanthropists like Dylan are somehow less worthy than those who chose to announce their giving plans to the world. After all, the pledge contains zero enforcement measures—it only serves to publicize giving that would, presumably, be made anyways. But Dylan reminds us – in his characteristically cool way – that there is a different style of philanthropy. A quieter, less eager style.

Located in the Tulsa Arts District, the Bob Dylan Center serves to educate, motivate and inspire visitors to engage their own capacity as creators. While the center is anchored by a permanent exhibit on the life and work of Bob Dylan, it also offers additional exhibits, public programs, performances, lectures, and publications, through which it aims to foster a conversation about the role of creativity in our lives.

As the primary public venue for the Bob Dylan Archive® collection, the center offers curated exhibits pulled from the priceless collection of more than 100,000 items spanning Dylan’s career, including handwritten manuscripts, notebooks and correspondence; films, videos, photographs and artwork; memorabilia and ephemera; personal documents and effects; unreleased studio and concert recordings; musical instruments; and many other elements.

Both the Bob Dylan Center and the Woody Guthrie Center operate under auspices of the American Song Archives, a project of the George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF).

BOB DYLAN PARTNERS WITH INTERNATIONAL CHARITIES TO HELP FEED HUNDREDS-OF-THOUSANDS DURING HOLIDAY SEASON

CRISIS UK AND WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME TO RECEIVE ARTIST’S ROYALTIES FROM CHRISTMAS IN THE HEART CD IN PERPETUITY

LONDON (23/09/2009) All of Bob Dylan’s international royalties from his forthcoming album of holiday songs, Christmas In The Heart—which is being released on Monday, October 12—will be donated to The World Food Programme and Crisis UK in perpetuity, it was announced today by Columbia Records. Dylan’s immediate donations will provide 500,000 meals to school children in the developing world during the holidays through the WFP and 15,000 meals to homeless people in the United Kingdom during the eight days of Christmas (December 23—December 30) through Crisis.

The WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian organization fighting hunger worldwide, aiming to feed 108 million people in 74 countries in 2009. Crisis is the United Kingdom’s national charity for single homeless people, dedicated to ending homelessness by delivering life-changing services and campaigning for change.

Today’s news follows the recent announcement of Bob Dylan’s partnership with Feeding America in the United States in which he is donating all of his U.S. royalties from Christmas In The Heart to that organization in perpetuity.

“Bob Dylan’s generosity to help WFP feed the world’s hungry couldn’t come at a better time. Starting this Christmas, we can give a meal to thousands of hungry school children all over the world ,a gift of a lifetime” said Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of WFP. “The number of hungry in the world—many of them children—has hit a historic high while food assistance has reached a historic low. For 80 percent of the world, a government safety net is little more than a dream. Bob Dylan’s new album will help change that.”

🎤🎤One of Bob Dylan’s most meaningful acts of kindness was his role in launching the first major charity concert in history — the Concert for Bangladesh in 1971.

Organized by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar, the concert aimed to raise money and awareness for refugees affected by war and famine in Bangladesh. At the time, Bob Dylan had mostly withdrawn from public life and hadn’t performed live in years — but he agreed to come out of seclusion and take the stage.

His surprise appearance at Madison Square Garden electrified the audience and added massive star power to the event, helping raise over $10 million for UNICEF and inspiring future charity concerts like Live Aid and Farm Aid.

Dylan’s performance and participation weren’t about fame or profit — they were about using music to heal and help people in crisis. It was a powerful moment that showed how music could truly make a global difference.

Blowin' in the Wind, the opening track on the album, was the song that made Dylan famous - initially thanks to the Peter, Paul and Mary version - and it also forever aligned with him the civil rights movement and anti-war protests. The song has a similar melody to that of the African American spiritual song No More Auction Block. It came about as musician Agnes 'Sis' Cunningham urged artists like Dylan to put contemporary activist lyrics to old tunes which she then published in her Broadside magazine. Dylan performed the number near to Dr Martin Luther King Jr at a march on Washington DC in 1963, becoming the voice of a generation in the process - a label he always rejected. He said that Dr King's famous I Have a Dream speech that day affected him "in a profound way".

Last week, it emerged Dylan had agreed to become an honorary patron of the The Bob Willis Fund - a new charity in memory of the late England cricketer. "Bob Willis was a great sportsman who left too soon," Dylan noted. "I'm happy to help keep his flame and cause alive."