Paul Newman’s Philanthropy Lives on Tthrough Newman's Own

Newman's Own is a food company and for-profit corporation founded by actor Paul Newman and author A. E. Hotchner in 1982. Newman received all of the profits from product sales and donated 100% of the proceeds, after taxes, to various educational and charitable organizations of his own selection.Newman's Own has inspired other business, including Give Something Back Business Products, to adopt his social enterprise model. In 1982 Newman summarized his initial intentions regarding distribution of his company's profits:

My profits will be divided between a number of tax-deductible charities and causes, some church-related, others for conservation and ecology and things like that.

The brand started with a homemade salad dressing that Newman and Hotchner prepared and gave to friends as gifts. The successful reception of the salad dressing led Newman and Hotchner to commercialize it for sale. After that initial item, made with $40,000 of Newman's own funds as seed money.

That effort mushroomed into a multimillion-dollar business that today makes 100 natural products — cookies, pasta sauce, salsa, pizza, frozen entrees and beverages , and gives all its profits away, including to nonprofits in Utah.

Over US$330 million as of June 20, 2012, according to the Newman's Own website had been generated for charity since 1982. The company co-sponsors the PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award, which is presented annually to a United States resident who has fought courageously, despite adversity, to safeguard the First Amendment right to freedom of expression as it applies to the written word.

A sampling of grantees is available at the Newman's Own Foundation website along with the distribution of funds by program area. From 2006 to 2008 the largest portions of funding went to human services, health, education, arts, and cultur One beneficiary of his charity is the Hole in the Wall Camps, residential summer camps for seriously ill children, which he co-founded in 1988. Today, there are eleven member camps around the world with additional programs in Africa and Vietnam. Over 135,000 children have attended a Hole in the Wall Camp free of charge, and it is expected that over 17,000 children will attend a Hole in the Wall Camp in 2009. While proceeds from Newman's Own financed the startup of the camp, it now receives funding from many other sources. Other beneficiaries of the profits from Newman's Own have included The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund (from 1983 onwards), the George Washington Carver Community Center (Norwalk), the Safe Water Network, Women of Worth,  Stars for Stripes,  the Sun Youth Organisation (Montreal),  and the Breast Care Centre at Singleton Hospital through the Swansea National Health Service Trust.

The absolute integrity of the intent and everything that was done  not just by Paul but everybody involved with it  have set a mode. And of course, Paul’s celebrity didn’t hurt. The fact that it was Paul Newman drew attention to it, and people saw that, hey, you can do these things. And that’s where the inspiration comes from.

Newman died in 2008, but his longtime friend Robert Forrester directs the Newman’s Own Foundation that keeps the business viable in order to continue its philanthropic efforts.

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