Dolly Parton dies aged 80 leaving global legacy of children’s literacy
Howard Lake | 26 August 2026 | News
Dolly Parton, whose Imagination Library has donated more than seven million free books to children in the UK since 2008, and many more internationally, has died at the age of 80.
Her publicist said that she died peacefully in Nashville at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. The announcement was made on her official Instagram account by her nephew Bryan Seaver, in a video she had asked him to record some years ago. Her family has asked that donations be made to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in lieu of flowers.
Parton was widely known as a singer, songwriter and businesswoman. For fundraisers, her more durable achievement is likely to be the philanthropic infrastructure she built and, unusually, funded, staffed and sustained for nearly four decades.
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Thousands of fundraisers were reminded of Dolly Parton’s philanthropic achievements when one of her quotes was featured (see above) on the cover of one of THINK‘s notebooks, distributed at multiple fundraising conferences.
The Dollywood Foundation
Parton established The Dollywood Foundation in 1988 to improve school retention and graduation rates in Sevier County, Tennessee, where she grew up as the fourth of 12 children.
In 1995 the Foundation launched the Imagination Library, inspired by her father Robert Lee Parton, who could neither read nor write. The model was simple: post one age-appropriate book a month, addressed to the child by name, from birth to their fifth birthday, at no cost to the family and regardless of household income.
That programme now operates in five countries and had gifted more than 300 million books by 2025, currently posting over three million books a month, across the USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and The Republic of Ireland.
In a statement issued on 25 August, the Foundation said it had prepared for this moment and would continue the work. Jeff Conyers, its President, said that while the organisation was heartbroken, the mission Parton gave it “is as clear today as it has ever been”. The Foundation added that Parton built organisations designed to keep working without her, and that its responsibility now is to grow them carefully.
The UK programme
In December 2007 Parton travelled to London to announce that the Imagination Library was coming to the UK. The first UK book was gifted in 2008.
The Dollywood Foundation UK was registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales on 11 December 2007 (registered charity number 1121917) and is also registered in Scotland (SC045571). It works across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, with a separate programme in the Republic of Ireland.
The Foundation funds and provides the core infrastructure, including book selection, wholesale purchasing through an exclusive arrangement with Penguin Random House UK, and the secure Book Order System database. Local partners, which can be local authorities, libraries, children’s centres, housing associations, Rotary clubs, trusts, businesses or individuals, enrol the children in their area and raise the money to cover the books and fulfilment.
The Foundation reports that this costs approximately £26 per child per year for 12 books, and provides a cost estimator and three regional directors to support new partners.
Growth in the UK has come largely through local authority-wide launches. Wandsworth registered more than 4,800 children within two months of launching in July 2025, which the council described as the fastest uptake of any UK council to date, supported by funds raised by players of People’s Postcode Lottery. Newcastle has expanded the programme across its area, and in January 2026 the programme marked its seven millionth UK book at Seven Stories, the national centre for children’s books in the city.
Giving beyond books
Parton’s philanthropy extended beyond literacy, and much of it was direct, fast and locally targeted.
After the 2016 Great Smoky Mountains wildfires she created the My People Fund, which paid $1,000 a month for six months to families whose homes were destroyed. The associated telethon raised in excess of $9 million. She raised a further $700,000 after Middle Tennessee flooding in 2021, and gave $1 million personally after Hurricane Helene in 2024, with her Foundation and East Tennessee businesses contributing another $1 million.
Funding early-stage COVID research
In April 2020 she donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, funds which supported early-stage research that contributed to Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine. She gave a further $1 million to Vanderbilt in 2022 for paediatric infectious disease research, having previously given $1 million to the Monroe Carell Jr Children’s Hospital in honour of a niece treated there for leukaemia.
In November 2022 she received the Bezos Courage and Civility Award, worth $100 million to distribute to causes of her choosing, and the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy. In November 2025 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented her with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Songwriter, performer, businesswoman
Parton wrote more than 3,000 songs, including “Jolene”, “Coat of Many Colors”, “9 to 5” and “I Will Always Love You”, and sold over 100 million albums. She won 10 competitive Grammy Awards from 55 nominations, together with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022. She starred in films including 9 to 5 and Steel Magnolias, and built Dollywood in Pigeon Forge into one of the region’s largest employers and a significant tourist economy in its own right.
She was predeceased by her husband of nearly 60 years, Carl Dean, who died in March 2025.
Imaginative giving
The Imagination Library grew because the central charity absorbed the costs that do not scale locally, while local partners owned the relationship and the fundraising. The gift itself was monthly, personalised, addressed to the child, and sustained for five years, which is closer to a stewardship programme than a book giveaway.
Parton also demonstrated the combined power of purpose and a truth well told. Her personal, specific reason for giving was growing up with a father who could not read.
Seven million UK books on, local partners are still needed. Organisations interested in bringing the programme to their area can contact a regional director through the Foundation’s UK site.
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.