By Katy Snyder, JVA Consulting

The most charitable celeb of 2012—Taylor Swift—might come as a surprise, mainly because the media seems to carry far more stories of her breakups than her philanthropy, and we are often bombarded with stories of how the young are disconnected from charitable giving. Nevertheless, Swift was awarded top honors by dosomething.org (click here to read a past JVA blog about dosomething.org) on its list of 20 Celebs Gone Good of 2012. Particularly interesting to me, from a fundraising perspective, was just how diversified Swift’s “giving portfolio” is. Swift’s giving includes a donation to the Country Hall of Fame Museum to fund the Taylor Swift Education Center, an exhibit and classroom space that was the largest-ever donation ($4 million) to the museum, extensive work with pediatric cancer and large donations to disaster relief efforts across the U.S. and abroad. Swift’s work to educate the public about and raise money for pediatric cancer is particularly inspiring. A 2012 New York Times article discusses the story behind Swift’s chart-topping single, “Ronan,” which tells the story of a three-year-old who died from a childhood cancer called neuroblastoma in 2011. After happening upon a blog written by Ronan’s real-life mom, Swift followed his story and wrote the song—based on his mom’s blog—which she performed at the Stand Up to Cancer telethon in September 2012 (watch the video here). Swift then donated all of the proceeds form the song to fighting pediatric cancer.

The depth and breadth of Swift’s giving was recognized when she was named the 2012 recipient of the Ripple of Hope Award from the Robert F. Kennedy Center, an extremely prestigious award given to those who demonstrate commitment to social change—past recipients include President Bill Clinton, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Bono, George Clooney and Vice President Al Gore. Swift was also the youngest person to ever receive the award.

Perhaps more interesting than Swift’s personal philanthropy, however, is the larger trend it represents: young, wealthy celebrities of the supposedly self-involved millennial generation are getting involved in philanthropy at an unprecedented rate and in ways that require more than just lending their names to a cause. In fact, it’s hard to find a celebrity in the under 30 (or even under 40) crowd who is not affiliated, at least superficially, with a charity. Many, however, are very personally involved in multiple charities, with their involvement ranging from personal appearances, to advocacy to donating proceeds from songs or concerts, or combining all of these types of giving, much as Swift is. Justin Bieber is another example of a young celeb with a vast array of giving interests, which might come as a surprise to those who have been following his progressively more irritating antics of late (speeding through his crowded subdivision, trying and failing to sneak into nightclubs and getting caught with drugs on his tour bus, among his most recent infractions). Given his recent bad publicity, it may come as a surprise that Bieber came in at number five on the dosomething list. In fact, Bieber has dropped in on fans with cancer, launched a charity drive in 2011 that benefitted a variety of youth, education and music causes (and has raised over $1.1 million to date), and made a $10,000 donation to a food bank in Canada, further personalizing his involvement by discussing how his mother had to rely on food banks in the past before his rise to fame. Other celebs, such as Miley Cyrus (ranked #2 on the dosomething list) and Selena Gomez (ranked #9) have similarly varied and impressive giving resumes.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the giving of young celebrities seems to mirror national trends of philanthropy among “regular joe” millennials. A 2011 survey that surveyed millennial donors found that nearly all (93 percent) give to charity, and that they are more likely to spread their donations among many nonprofits than select just a few as older donors often do. Further, like Swift and Bieber, they highly value personal involvement, and most (79 percent) donate their time as well as their money to various causes.

So what does it all mean? For me, the sheer number of young celebs (and regular young folks, too) involved in philanthropic work is inspiring, and the seeming depth of their involvement bodes well for all—from those who directly benefit from their work to the legions of young fans who hopefully will be inspired to give back in their own lives. Far from the disconnected slactivists that this generation is often portrayed as, these young people are forging a path for the philanthropy of the future, one that is involved, responsive and can have lasting impact.