Charlize Theron encourages people to find ways to help through philanthropy at Town & Country summit

abcnews.go.com:

Charlize Theron remembers the moment her role in philanthropy clicked into place

NEW YORK — Charlize Theron remembers the moment her role in philanthropy clicked into place.

The Oscar-winning actress had been talking with community leaders in her homeland of South Africa about how they could tackle the AIDS epidemic there. “We heard them say, ‘We know what to do, but we just need the resources to do it,’” Theron said Thursday at the Town & Country Philanthropy Summit in Manhattan. “And I thought, ‘Oh, wait, I can do that.’”

As a result, she created the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project in 2007 to fund community leaders in South Africa who were already working on the AIDS epidemic and then expanded to gender equity issues. “Our philosophy is always listen and they’ll tell us what we need to do and then we help with that,” Theron told The Associated Press in an interview backstage before her appearance at the summit.

It's a strategy that resonated throughout the Town & Country Philanthropy Summit, which celebrated its 10th anniversary Thursday.

“Philanthropy, for me, comes down to a very simple question: ‘What can I do?’,” said Stellene Volandes, Town & Country's editor in chief. “When you feel like there is something you might be able to do, it means you still have hope and it gives each and every one of us a role in making the world better.”

Volandes said philanthropy has been part of Town & Country essentially since the magazine launched in 1846. She said the Philanthropy Summit began in 2013 at a time when “the age of the anonymous donor was close to being over.”

“It’s when philanthropy became news,” she said. “Who was giving? How much were they giving? Who’s getting their name on the building?”

A lot has changed