Ever since Madonna tied a red string around her wrist and signed up as patron saint of the Kabbalah Centre of Los Angeles, she has fed the group $5.1 million in charitable contributions – at the expense of other nonprofits she once favored, tax records show.
Since 2001, when the pop star embraced the mystical religion, her Ray of Light Foundation, the nonprofit she founded in 1998 to benefit health, music and kid-related charities, has given just 25 percent of its charity handouts, or $1.3 million, to nonkabbalah organizations, according to IRS filings.
Before kabbalah, Ray of Light made contributions to more than two dozen charities, including the T.J. Martell Cancer and Leukemia Foundation, MusicCares, the Helen Keller Services for the Blind, and a church in Madonna’s home state of Michigan.
Madonna doled out $264,622 to those various groups between 1998 and 2000, tax records show.
Then came 2001 – and kabbalism.
That year, Madonna’s charity made its first big disbursement, $1.24 million, records show.
Of that, $500,000 went to her new friends at kabbalah, which, along with its half-dozen related entities, is an IRS-sanctioned religious nonprofit.
The next year, Ray of Light gave out $2.1 million. Kabbalah raked in $1,994,157 of that, according to tax filings.
In 2003, records show, kabbalah hit pay dirt again, getting $1.18 million of a total $1.27 paid out.
Madonna’s charity gave out $803,473 in 2004, with nearly 90 percent, or $698,910, earmarked for kabbalah.
In 2005, Ray of Light gave away $621,000. About $453,000 went to kabbalah and related groups.
In 2006, the most recent year for which IRS figures are available, Madonna’s nonprofit disbursed $341,124. Kabbalah’s take was $250,000.