In 2019, Dolly Parton was honored with the MusiCares Person of the Year award, in recognition of her charity work in the field of education and literacy. Parton's pet charity initiative is the Imagination Library, which gives a child a free book once a month from the time he or she is born until they reach the age of five. Begin with Books says the initiative kicked off in Sevier County, Tennessee but is now available in Canada and the UK, and distributes over 900,000 books a month in the U.S. alone. 

The Imagination Library is just one of the charity initiatives Parton carries out through the Dollywood Foundation, which was established in 1988. In 2017, she donated $1 million to the Monroe Carell Jr. Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, and in 2010 she donated $500,000 to the LeConte Medical Center project. Her My People Fund donated nearly $9 million to victims of the 2016 East Tennessee wildfires. She's also supported the United Way and Save the Music Foundation, takes part in the Make-a-Wish program, and shared her resources to causes like animal rights and health, including HIV/AIDS charities (via The Boot).