Dolly Parton is almost as well known for her charitable spirit as she is for topping the country charts. The 10-time GRAMMY winner has made kindness, philanthropy and inclusivity major tenets of her life and career, and this year she's the 2024 recipient of the PEACE Through Music Award.

Parton accepted the honor at a special ceremony held at the GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles on Oct. 25.

"Is that not what we're all looking for: a little peace?" the country icon asked in her joyful acceptance speech. "We all want it. Some of us, all around this old world, can only dream about it. But as people, we all deserve it."

Presented by the Recording Academy and the U.S. Department of State, the PEACE Through Music Award honors an American music industry professional, artist or group who has played an invaluable role in cross-cultural exchanges and whose music work advances peace and mutual understanding globally. The award launched last year as part of the Global Music Diplomacy Initiative; 28-time GRAMMY winner Quincy Jones was the inaugural honoree.

To celebrate Dolly Parton's 2024 PEACE Through Music Award honor, dive into five of the many ways she's demonstrated her commitment to the principles of peace, unity and inclusion throughout her celebrated career.

Giving Back Through The Dollywood Foundation

Parton first launched her namesake nonprofit, the Dollywood Foundation, in 1988 — just two years after opening the doors to her famed theme park, Dollywood. In the 36 years since its inception, the country star has used the foundation to encourage the importance of education in her native Tennessee. She first began raising money for scholarships given to local high school students before eventually launching the official Dolly Parton Scholarship in 2000. 

Initially, Dolly's scholarship offered $15,000 to four students at Sevier County High School, the country icon's alma mater. However, to date, the scholarship program has expanded to award students in at least three other neighboring high schools, continually perpetuating the gift of education to rising generations where she was born and raised. 

Promoting Childhood Literacy With Dolly Parton's Imagination Library

For decades, one of the pillars of the singer's philanthropic mission has been Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, the children's literacy program she founded in 1995 to honor her father, Robert Lee Parton, Sr.

Though the sharecropper and father of 12 never learned to read or write in his lifetime, his famous daughter's Imagination Library focuses on early childhood education by "gifting books free of charge to children from birth to age 5" throughout the U.S., Canada, the UK, Ireland, and Australia.

Working with local affiliate partners, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library has gifted more than 250,000,000 books and counting to children around the world as of press time. In July 2024, the program also reached a new milestone of registering 3 million children worldwide.

Assisting Wildfire Victims Through Her My People Fund

In 2016, Parton created the My People Fund, a new branch of her Dollywood Foundation, in response to the Great Smoky Mountains wildfires that devastated the Southeastern United States — including her beloved home state of Tennessee — that year.

Killing at least 14 people and burning down thousands of homes and businesses, the wildfires quickly became the deadliest in Tennessee history, and Parton's My People Fund aimed to help victims of the tragedy get back on their feet.

The charitable initiative gave $1,000 a month for up to six months to residents of Sevier County, Tennessee who had lost their homes and livelihoods to the blaze, and brought together major organizations like Verizon, Tanger Outlets and Miley Cyrus' Happy Hippie Foundation to donate to the cause.

"I have always believed that charity begins at home," Parton said at the time of the tragedy. Ultimately, the My People Fund helped more than 900 families affected by the crisis. 

Parton's associated telethon, Smoky Mountains Rise: A Benefit for the My People Fund, also raised more than $13 million and featured appearances by Kenny Rogers, Reba McEntire, Alison Krauss, Cyndi Lauper and more. 

Helping Fund The Moderna Vaccine

It's not an understatement to say that Dolly Parton is a major reason the world has one of the COVID-19 vaccines.

In the early days of the global coronavirus pandemic, the country star announced she was donating $1 million to fund research of the virus at Nashville's Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Parton's massive check helped fund early stages in developing Moderna's vaccine, and less than a year later, she received the potentially life-saving vaccine her donation played a part in creating. 

Naturally, the singer also used her platform to encourage fans to get vaccinated as well — to the tune of "Jolene," naturally. It's virtually impossible to estimate just how many lives Dolly helped to save by this one act of generosity alone.

Championing LGBTQIA+ Rights Through Music & Advocacy

There's no denying Parton is a bonafide queer icon, and she's actively supported the LGBTQIA+ community for decades.

The "Coat of Many Colors" singer made a plainspoken reference to gay people, and the need to stand by them no matter what, in her 1991 ballad "Family." ("Some are preachers, some are gay/ Some are addicts, drunks and strays/ But not a one is turned away when it's family," she sang on the saccharine album cut from 1991's Eagle When She Flies.)

Nearly two decades later, she spoke out with her trademark wit in support of marriage equality during a 2009 appearance on "The Joy Behar Show." "I always say, 'Sure, why can't they get married? They should suffer like the rest of us do,'" the singer joked at the time, a full six years before the Supreme Court legalized marriage equality with the Obergefell v. Hodges decision.

Parton's support of the LGBTQ+ community hasn't been in words alone, either. The beloved icon has regularly supported HIV/AIDS charities during her time in the spotlight, including the Elton John AIDS Foundation and GLAAD.