Michael Jackson’s public humanitarian work included charities, hospitals and millions of dollars raised for different causes. But according to people who researched that side of his life, some of his giving was intentionally kept so private that the people receiving the help never even knew his name was behind it.
The book A Life for L.O.V.E., which collected accounts from people who knew Michael or witnessed his humanitarian work, describes him sending money or arranging deliveries to families through a third person. That intermediary was reportedly told not to reveal where the help had come from because Michael did not want recipients to feel embarrassed about needing it.
Humanitarian – The Real Michael Jackson
Michael himself once explained a very similar philosophy. During conversations with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, he remembered hearing a childhood story about food and clothes being anonymously left for poor families so they could accept the help without feeling ashamed. When asked whether he had also performed charitable acts nobody knew about, Michael answered that he had, “without waving the flag.”
The authors of A Life for L.O.V.E. connected this approach partly to Michael’s religious beliefs. He had been raised as a Jehovah’s Witness and remained involved with the faith well into adulthood before formally leaving the organization in 1987. But they stressed another motivation even more strongly: he simply did not want someone’s need for help to become a source of embarrassment.
That secrecy also makes the full scale of his private giving difficult to measure. What can be documented is already substantial. Guinness World Records says Michael had supported 39 charitable organizations by 2000 through donations, sponsorships and fundraising activities. People who worked around him have also described charitable acts that received little or no publicity at the time.
Michael Jackson became one of history’s biggest entertainers through Thriller, “Billie Jean,” Bad and performances copied around the world. But perhaps some of his most meaningful acts never had an audience at all. There may have been families who opened a door, received exactly what they desperately needed and went on with their lives never realizing that Michael Jackson had quietly put it there.