Whitney, one of the iconic African American figures, has also been an outstanding role model in her lifetime for her commitment to charity. Since her debut in the 1980s, Whitney's social responsibility has been projected in her concern for all levels of the charity sector.
Whitney's final commitment to philanthropy came in late 2011, when she and her sister-in-law Patricia Houston*** designed and marketed a scented candle, with a portion of the proceeds going to Teen Summit, a mentoring program launched by the Patricia Houston Foundation in 2007. A portion of the proceeds were donated to the Patricia Houston Foundation's "Teen Summit" mentoring program, which has been in existence since 2007. The Foundation's mission is to help young people "reshape, rebuild and reorganize" their lives, and Teen Summit has provided thousands of young people with simulated employment opportunities. Whitney, who refused to work with any organization that had financial ties to South Africa during the years of apartheid, was later invited to attend a concert in London celebrating Mandela's 70th birthday as part of an appeal to the South African government to loosen segregation and release the later president of South Africa.
Whitney Houston established a charitable foundation in her name, which has earned Whitney numerous humanitarian awards for its work. 1989 saw the creation of the Whitney Houston Children's Foundation, which helps sick and homeless orphans and works to prevent child abuse. The foundation has also helped children learn to read. The foundation also helped children learn to read and built a park and playground in the heart of the city. Whitney even had guests and fans donate to the foundation in the form of gifts at her wedding. Of course, Whitney's philanthropic exploits go far beyond that.
Whitney's Super Bowl halftime performance during the 1991 Gulf War made her the first person to sing the U.S. national anthem on the annual Hot 100 list, and the royalties from her rendition of the anthem were donated to the Red Cross.
In 1995, Whitney's donation of $110,000 helped solve an urgent need for medical equipment at the Children's Special Care Unit of the New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry. The facility, which has since been named in Whitney's honor, is a multidisciplinary clinic for children who have had traumatic experiences or are seriously ill. Thanks to Whitney's funding, the clinic was equipped with a range of state-of-the-art medical equipment and became the only facility in New Jersey to perform liver transplants on children, with a ground and air rescue team ready to move children in urgent need to medical schools.
As a beloved pop diva, she used her voice to help raise money for charitable programs, and in 1997, Whitney's classic Washington, D.C., concert was simulcast on television, which, according to the U.S.-based charity Look to the Stars, helped raise money for the Children's Defense Fund. "According to US charity Look to the Stars, Whitney raised $300,000 for the Children's Defense Fund.
In 2001, in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, Whitney recreated a 10-year-old rendition of the anthem, with a remake that climbed to the top of the sales charts overnight, and more than $1 million in royalties going to the New York Firefighters' Trauma Recovery Fund and the New York Fraternal Order of Police Fund, which assists firefighters and police officers traumatized by their efforts to save lives in disasters.
Whitney's caring hand is not limited to the U.S. In 1988, she recorded the song One Moment in Time (闪耀时刻) at the Seoul Olympics to pay tribute to the athletes, and in 1994, during a concert in South Africa, she donated proceeds from the ticket sales of the concert to a number of local charities, including the Mandela's Trust, the Kagiso Foundation, two local charities, and the Kagiso Foundation. Kagiso Foundation, two children's museums, and orphanages; and in February 2004, Whitney traveled to Moscow for a concert, donating 1 million rubles to the victims of the Moscow subway bombings.