ivillage

Newman's Own

by Kimberly Potts (see more from this contributor)

By: Oscar winner Paul Newman
Founded: 1982
Why: Newman wanted to create a line of foodstuffs that would taste great, and that would provide him with profits he could funnel to his favorite charities.
Fund-raisers: The Newman's Own product line started with salad dressings and has expanded to include spaghetti sauce, popcorn, salsa, salad dressings packaged with salads at McDonald's, lemonades, fruit juices, steak sauce and a spin-off line of organic goodies including cookies, coffee and cat food.
How's it doing? The company's products have earned more than $200 million for Newman, who, incredibly, donates 100 percent of his profits to his favorite charities, including civil rights groups, schools for the deaf, theater programs for low-income children, and the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, a summer camp in Connecticut for seriously ill children.
Paul says: "This is not a celebrity issue. This is a political issue, and the concept that a person who has a lot holds his hand out to someone who has less — or someone who isn't hurting holds his hand out to someone who is — is simply a human trait that has nothing to do with celebrity. I am confounded at the stinginess of some institutions and some people. I'm bewildered by it. You can only put away so much stuff in your closet... So, I don't think that there's anything exceptional or noble in being philanthropic. It's the other attitude that confuses me."
You can give to: NewmansOwn.com

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