Oprah_ A Biography - Kitty Kelley [193]
“She certainly makes an effort to do good deeds,” Steve Johnson wrote in the Chicago Tribune, “even if there is often an accompanying effort to make the effort known.” It is true that most of Oprah’s giving was followed by an Oprah press release, plus mentions on The Oprah Winfrey Show, but perhaps she was setting an example for others to follow and not just being self-aggrandizing.
By 2010 viewer donations had fallen off by 50 percent, so without fanfare she posted an announcement on her Angel Network website that she would no longer be accepting donations. She also discontinued the network’s grant-making program. A review of the tax returns of Oprah’s Angel Network indicates that she has been donating more than one-half of her viewers’ contributions to help the needy in sub-Saharan Africa ($2,821,611 in 2008) and non-U.S. regions in North America ($2,409,594). The total for non-U.S. grants and distributions: $5,231,205. The total for U.S. grants: $3,354,322.
Some might suggest that the 150,000 viewers who contributed to Oprah’s Angel Network are contributing less because she donated more of their money outside the U.S. But Oprah’s fans did not give their money with strings attached. Wherever she wanted to give was fine with them, and in the last few years she has decided to position herself more as a global philanthropist and concentrate more of her giving in Africa.
In March 2010, Oprah staged a ten-day online auction on eBay (“Oprah’s Great Closet Cleanout”), selling 40 pairs of shoes and boots, 42 purses, and 101 items of clothing, including jackets, skirts, blouses, sweaters, and dresses. Each item was tagged as belonging to Oprah: “Oprah Winfrey Prada Red Suede Peep-Toe Heels” drew bids of over $573. “Oprah Winfrey Black Chanel Quilted Evening Bag” drew $2,025. “Oprah Winfrey Carolina Herrera Dress, Worn on Show!” drew $1,125.
Oprah did not reveal the total figure raised from her online auction, but she stated that all proceeds went to the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy in South Africa. Oprah’s previous online auctions (1999, 2004, and 2005) benefited Oprah’s Angel Network, which at the time gave most of their donations to U.S. charities.
In later years she tried to position her initial do-good efforts as unheralded. “Early on in my career, when I first came to Chicago, I had my own Big Sisters club where myself and the producers would go into the projects,” she told TelevisionWeek. “Didn’t tell anybody about it. It wasn’t publicized.” Actually, she mentioned the Big Sisters club in almost all of her interviews at the time.
That effort began with a 1985 show taped in Cabrini Green, a low-income housing project on Chicago’s Near North Side, known as one of the most dangerous bullet-strewn ghettos in the country. Mary Kay Clinton, the associate producer of the show, was so moved by the young girls she met that she started a Little Sisters program in conjunction with a Cabrini Green counselor, and Oprah and her staff participated as Big Sisters. There was great enthusiasm at first as the Harpo group met with the youngsters, ten to thirteen years old, every two weeks. Arriving in her limousine, Oprah would gather the girls from their ghetto apartments to go shopping or to the movies or out to dinner. When Mike Wallace came to Chicago to do a 60 Minutes segment on her, Oprah invited the Little Sisters for a slumber party at her condominium.
WALLACE: Oprah doesn’t just make speeches to young people. She wanted to do more to help young black girls, so she and the women on her staff formed a “Little Sister” group with youngsters from one of Chicago’s housing projects. In order to be able to stay in the group, there are two basic rules: You must do well in school and you can’t get pregnant.
Camera shows Oprah with the group in pajamas, giggling and talking.
WALLACE: They get together several times a month. This night at a pajama party in Oprah’s living room.… Along with the laughing, there is always something