Giving Back

Tony Bennett's heart is in the right place. His original paintings are often used for charitable purposes, and every year his artwork is featured in the American Cancer Society's holiday card with proceeds going to cancer research funding.

But Bennett's involvement in charities goes beyond painting. Actively concerned with environmental issues, he has performed at fund-raisers for the Walden Woods Foundation and the Save the Rainforest Foundation.

A civil-rights supporter who joined Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s march to Selma, Ala., in 1965, Bennett received the Salute to Greatness Award from the Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta for his efforts to fight discrimination.

He also helped establish the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in his native New York borough of Queens, a public high school offering an extensive arts curriculum. And he has raised millions of dollars for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, which has instituted a research fund in his name.