However, she’s more than just a business woman when it comes to social justice and protecting the planet.

Rihanna has founded an incredibly successful non-profit organisation, and she uses her platform and financial status to donate to social causes across the world.

Here’s a quick rundown of some of the recent things she’s done to help people and the planet:

Rihanna literally just donated $15m to fight climate change and injustice

In 2012, Rihanna founded the “Clara Lionel foundation”(CLF) in honour of her grandparents. CLF is a non-profit organisation that advocates for “policy and systemic change while mobilising people to take action in response the world’s injustices.”

Her foundation has recently made the headlines as it’s just announced that it will donate $15m (£12.5m) in grants to eighteen organisations fighting for climate justice across the United States and Caribbean.

These organisations are predominantly led by women, people of colour, indigenous peoples and LGTBQ communities as Rihanna acknowledges that climate change “does not impact all communities equally, with communities of colour and island nations facing the brunt of climate change.”

Unlike other celebrities that engage in performative activism, Rihanna is actively funding work that will make a difference to those who are most at risk of the adverse effects of climate change and inequality.

During the pandemic, she assisted with Covid-19 relief to the most vulnerable

In March 2020, Rihanna donated $5m (£3.7m) to help relieve the covid-19 pandemic in the US, Africa and Caribbean. The money was again distributed through the CLF to a variety of groups helping to support healthcare workers by providing them with protective equipment and training.

Additionally, the funds also aided the acceleration of testing in Haiti and Malawi, addressing the issues created by a lack of resources that less developed nations were facing on a significant scale during the pandemic.

Riri was the first global ambassador for education

In 2016, Rihanna’s foundation joined a campaign with Global Citizen and Global Partnership of Education advocating for 250 million children across 60 developing countries to receive a quality education, and to put pressure on world leaders to give more attention to global learning.

She became the first ever global ambassador for education and was active in her role – in 2018 it was reported that she’d helped to raise $2.3bn (£1.7bn) for the organisation. In response to the fundraising, she said: “We have a long way to go. This is a fight we’re never gonna stop fighting until every boy and every girl has access to education.”

She donated $2.1 million to help victims of domestic violence during lockdown

As well as assisting with covid-19 relief to the most vulnerable, Rihanna donated another $2.1m (£1.67m) to victims of domestic violence affected by the coronavirus lockdown in Los Angeles.  She teamed up with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey who also contributed $2.1m to the cause.

The grant covered ten weeks of shelter, meals and counselling for the victims situated in LA.

Her donations came at a time where domestic violence hotlines had received three times as many calls as they did the previous year before. Women’s shelters were operating in limited capacity as households were encouraged not to mix at the time, exacerbating every-day life for domestic violence victims.

Rihanna herself is a survivor of domestic violence, making this donation seem very personal to her own life.

Rihanna shows celebrities that tweeting in solidarity with social justice isn’t enough

Even prior to her billionaire status, Rihanna engaged with social justice from as early as eighteen years old when she founded the Belief Foundation, and as her career and status grew, so did her charity and social work.

Whilst there are celebrities that donate to social justice movements, in society today it’s very easy for celebrities to retweet information about causes and think that their “awareness” is enough in terms of helping.

Rihanna’s support of grassroots organisations and typically the most vulnerable in society throughout the entirety of her career shows that her support is more than just a publicity stunt, it’s genuine.

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