Oprah_ A Biography - Kitty Kelley [192]
Soon Oprah would put herself well beyond the reach of all her critics by becoming an international philanthropist whose giving would enshrine her as a global icon.
WHEN OPRAH appeared on the Forbes list of the world’s 476 billionaires in February 2003, she became what she had set out to be: the richest black woman in the world. “From the very beginning—as early as 1985,” recalled her friend Nancy Stoddart, “she always said she was going to be a billionaire.”
She reveled in her riches as a blessing from God. When she returned to Kosciusko in 1998 to promote Beloved and to dedicate a house that she had financed through Habitat for Humanity, she quoted Psalms 37:4 to the hometown crowd: “Delight thyself in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” Her visit was trumpeted by The Star-Herald with a front-page headline: “Oprah Comes Home.” Wearing a brown turtleneck sweater, a long tweed skirt, and high-heel boots, plus a big gold Rolex watch and a pinkie ring, she stood in the rain to address the crowd while her bodyguard held an umbrella over her head. “I’m most proud of the fact that I’m one black woman from Kosciusko, Mississippi, with my hand still in God’s hand,” she said. During that visit she told reporters that being one of the most powerful people in television and having great wealth was no problem for her. “You receive in proportion to how big your heart is and how willing you are to extend yourself to other people.”
Deconstructing that statement might lead some to conclude that Oprah believed she was a billionaire because she had more humanity than most, but she softened the impression, if not clarifying it, by adding, “It is why you have to give that comes back to you.”
Always generous, she began giving in earnest in 1997, donating $12 million to the Oprah Winfrey Foundation and forming Oprah’s Angel Network to collect donations from her viewers. “I want you to open your hearts and see the world in a different way,” she told them. “I promise this will change your life for the better.” She started by asking for spare change to create “the world’s largest piggy bank” to fund college scholarships for needy students. In less than six months her viewers had donated more than $3.5 million in coins and bills to send 150 students to college, 3 students from every state. Even the White House contributed, and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton flew to Chicago to appear on Oprah’s show with a piggy bank full of coins she had collected from employees.
Deeply affected by the 1997 death of Diana, Princess of Wales, Oprah wanted to assume her humanitarian role. “We are … grieved by Princess Diana’s death,” she said on The Today Show, explaining Oprah’s Angel Network, “and the world was talking about what she did charitably—and I wanted people to know, you can do that yourself in your own space where you are in your life.… You can bea princess … by taking what you have and extending it to other people.”
Oprah partnered her Angel Network with 10,000 volunteers from Habitat for Humanity to build 205 houses, one in every city whose local television station broadcast The Oprah Winfrey Show. When Habitat for Humanity built a house for Oprah’s Angel Network, they called the project Oprah’s Angel House, and after the tsunami of 2004 and the 2005 hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Oprah Angel Houses sprang up like mushrooms. She took her show to New Orleans, pledging $10 million of her own money, and from 2005 to 2006 she raised $11 million more through her Angel Network for rebuilding. She paid the operating expenses of Oprah’s Angel Network so that all donations went directly to the charities she selected. By 2008, her viewers had contributed more than $70 million to 172 projects around the world that focused on women, children, and families; education and literacy; relief and recovery; and youth and community development—all selected by Oprah and donated in her name. She fully understood the goodwill that accrues to those