Brad Paisley thanks Swift and Kelce for $26m charity gifts
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce donated $26 million to 20 U.S. charities this week ahead of their wedding at Madison Square Garden. Country singer Brad Paisley and his wife, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, quickly thanked the couple for an "amazing donation" to their Nashville nonprofit, The Store, calling it transformative for families facing food insecurity. The giving spree also included a confirmed $1 million gift to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, where Swift owns a Watch Hill home.
Key Takeaways
- Swift and Kelce gave $26 million to 20 hand-picked charities before their July wedding at Madison Square Garden.
- Brad Paisley and Kimberly Williams-Paisley called the donation to Nashville's The Store "transformative" in an Instagram video.
- The Rhode Island Community Food Bank confirmed a $1 million gift that will fund summer meals for hundreds of children.
- Nonprofit leaders said they learned about the gifts suddenly—often through phone calls from Swift's team or partners like Feeding America.
- Donations targeted communities tied to the couple, from Kansas City and Reading, Pennsylvania, to New York and Los Angeles.
Why did Brad Paisley thank Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce?
On the eve of what Paisley called "the wedding of Tay and Trav," he and Williams-Paisley posted an Instagram video in wedding attire thanking Swift and Kelce for an "amazing donation" to The Store, the Nashville nonprofit they co-founded in 2020 to combat food insecurity.
"It's transformative. It will feed so many families, and what a way to start a marriage," Paisley said. Williams-Paisley noted that food insecurity in Nashville is at a 10-year high and called the timing "so critical."
According to Rolling Stone, this marks Swift's second contribution to The Store in the past year after she included the organization in her holiday giving last January.
How much did Swift and Kelce donate before their wedding?
A representative for Swift told PEOPLE on July 2 that the couple distributed $26 million across 20 local and national organizations. Recipients spanned food banks, children's hospitals, education nonprofits, and animal welfare groups in cities with personal meaning to the couple.
While individual amounts were not disclosed for every recipient, several organizations confirmed $1 million gifts, including City Harvest in New York, Harvesters in Kansas City, the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, and the Rhode Island Community Food Bank.
The donations arrived just days before the couple's reported wedding on Friday, July 3, at Madison Square Garden—making the charitable push one of the biggest headlines in celebrity breaking news this week.
How did charities learn about the $26 million gifts?
Nonprofit leaders told PEOPLE they learned about the couple's generosity the same way: suddenly, directly, and often through a phone call that did not feel real at first.
Rhode Island Community Food Bank CEO Melissa Cherney said Feeding America called and told her team, "Boy, have we got some exciting news for you," then connected them with a member of Swift's team. "We were speechless," Cherney said, calling it their "wildest dreams come true."
Los Angeles Regional Food Bank chief development officer Roger Castle said Swift's management company called the day before the news went public. He interrupted a staff meeting to share that the couple would give $1 million—roughly 4 million meals for Angelenos facing hunger.
What will the Rhode Island food bank do with $1 million?
The Providence-based Rhode Island Community Food Bank said the gift will allow pantries statewide to purchase fresh produce, meat, protein items, and milk during a summer stretch when food donations typically slow, according to the Boston Globe.
The food bank serves about 90,000 Rhode Islanders and provides roughly 500 meals to children five days a week during summer months. The $1 million will support 137 member agencies fighting hunger across a state where Swift often spends the Fourth of July at her Watch Hill estate.
Cherney wished the couple well ahead of their nuptials and said Swift has a longstanding relationship with food banks and Feeding America, continuing to recognize that hunger remains a serious community concern.