Cheersy, which was founded in 2024 by Amy Shack Egan, helps couples find day-of-service wedding coordinators and has raised a total of $550,000 from other investors, including Elizabeth Cutler, co-founder of Soul Cycle, and Jennifer Gilbert, founder of Save the Date. Joanna Rosholm, the former press secretary to First Lady Michelle Obama, and Christina Tosi, the founder of Milk Bar, advised the round. Shack Egan said she met Washington through the actor's director of social impact. They both attended a dinner party in Los Angeles where Shack Egan struck up a conversation. By the end of the dinner, the director of social impact offered an introduction to Washington as a possible angel investor. Washington has been making a name for herself as an angel investor alongside other Hollywood titans edging their way into the world of startups. She's an investor in the social website Spill, a Black-owned alternative to X. She's also backed the eating disorder treatment startup Equip and, according to PitchBook, has cut checks for the charity fundraising platform Omaze and the healthcare company Solv. She was also an investor in The Wing, the women's social club that shut down in 2022....

As Muslims fast from dawn to dusk during Ramadan, an important aspect of their faith is their role as stewards of God on Earth. One way Muslims do this is through the practice of Zakat, an obligatory kind of charity that's one of the five pillars of Islam. Zakat requires Muslims to give 2.5% of their wealth to eight prescribed categories: the poor; the needy; Zakat administrators; those whose hearts can be reconciled; to free the enslaved; to help those in debt; for travelers; and for the sake of God. Muslims, however, worry that they are responsible to God to ensure that their Zakat is used by institutions in ways that would do good, while adhering to the theological requirements of this religious practice. Yet, my research shows that Muslim American nonprofits are taking steps to build trust with donors. One important aspect of how Muslims are supposed to use their wealth is through charity. Zakat is an obligatory charitable practice in which donations are traditionally channeled through institutions....

One by one, Ukrainian villagers gathered round and held their smartphones out to catch the signal. A nearby Starlink terminal, a small, square-shaped panel facing the sky, was about to beam their voices to a satellite in low Earth orbit, which in turn would relay their calls to relatives hundreds or thousands of kilometers away. Here, close to the front line in Ukraine's northeastern provinces, where mobile phone networks are down, you don't get to make that connection very often, to send that picture that shows you are still OK. Phones rang, people on the other end picked up, conversations'and tears'flowed. 'I don't think it can be exaggerated how big a difference it makes to people's lives. For them to be able to have that moment of normality,' says Ada Wordsworth, director of KHARPP, a charity predominantly working to rebuild homes in Ukraine, who brought the Starlink terminal to this village with her team in 2023. KHARPP has paid for and deployed six Starlink terminals in Ukraine during the past two years. They have connected people displaced by the war, helped a kindergarten offer online English lessons to children, and allowed doctors to access patients' medical records. But Wordsworth has no plans to buy any more. 'It's not something that makes sense to invest in,' she explains. 'They might be switched off.'...

The 50 American individuals and couples who gave or pledged the most to charity in 2024 committed US$16.2 billion to foundations, universities, hospitals and more. That total was 33% above an inflation-adjusted $12.2 billion in 2023, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy's latest annual tally of these donations. Media mogul and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg led the list, followed by Netflix co-founder and chairman Reed Hastings, along with his wife, Patty Quillin. Businessman Michael Dell and his wife, Susan Dell, pledged the third most in 2024. Neither MacKenzie Scott nor Elon Musk, both of whom announced donations large enough to land them on this list, provided enough information for the Chronicle to include them. Musk didn't name the nonprofits to which he gave stock, and Scott declined to confirm how much money she put into the donor-advised funds through which she gives. Known as DAFs, these funds are savings accounts reserved for charitable giving. The Conversation U.S. asked David Campbell, Lindsey McDougle and Susan Appe, three philanthropy scholars, to assess the significance of these gifts and to consider what they indicate about the state of charitable giving in the United States....