Most people usually enjoy receiving gifts on their birthdays, but on the eve of Beyoncé’s 39th trip around the sun, the superstar made sure to give back to her community.
According to her website and her BeyGOOD Foundation’s Instagram page, Queen Bey will donate $1 million to small, Black-owned businesses, and “round two of funding opens this month with [their] partner, NAACP.”
This will be Beyoncé’s second donation with the NAACP; the first came in July, when she provided $100,000 grants to small, Black-owned businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in cities such as Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and New York through BeyGOOD. This partnership is aptly called the Black-Owned Small Business Impact Fund.
Bey is no stranger to giving back, and in 2020 especially, her charitable nature has only gained momentum. The proceeds of the sale of her chart-topping single with Megan Thee Stallion, “Savage (Remix),” went to a nonprofit in their home city of Houston. Additionally, in April, Beyoncé teamed up with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in order to donate $6 million in support of mental health and wellness organizations through BeyGOOD.
In May, she and her mother, Tina Knowles-Lawson also launched the #IDIDMYPART Mobile Testing Relief Campaign through BeyGOOD, which provided free testing kits, masks, gloves and household supplies for citizens in Houston. It just doesn’t stop!
Beyoncé was awarded the BET Humanitarian Award in June, and in her speech, she discussed not only the importance of giving back during these unprecedented times but how imperative it is to vote in the 2020 presidential election.
“I’m encouraging you to continue to take action—continue to change and dismantle a racist and unequal system,” she said. “We have to continue to do this together—continue to fight for each other and lift each other up because there are people banking on us staying at home during local elections and primaries happening in states across the country. We have to vote like our life depends on it because it does.”
Happy Birthday to Bey!