Artists Are Creating Impact By Doing What They Love

Sabrina Carpenter performs during her “Short n’ Sweet” tour at Madison Square Garden on October 26, 2025 in New York, New York. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for AEG)

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for AEG

Artists Are Creating Impact By Doing What They Love

“Impact starts with just $1,” Marika Anthony-Shaw, Founder & CEO of PLUS1 said about how artists including Sabrina Carpenter, Jessie Reyez and $uicideboy$ are embedding impact into what they do every night on stage.

PLUS1 is helping artists to have a meaningful impact on issues they and their audiences care deeply about. For example, the UK leg of Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet tour helped PAPYRUS open their mental health hotline to be 24/7, employing 4 HOPELINE Advisors who will have over 5,000 lifesaving interactions in a year with young people who are struggling with thoughts of suicide, via text, phone, email and webchat.

PLUS1 grew out of Anthony-Shaw’s experience playing viola for nine years with the band Arcade Fire. The band was looking for a way to support Haiti and realized the opportunities for impact lay with the most passionate and committed people they knew: their audience. “There’s a lot of people in this room, so why don’t we commit $1 from every ticket to something we care about?” Anthony-Shaw recalls thinking. “Over the course of time, the band contributed over $2.5 million dollars to building the largest teaching hospital in Haiti, to training public health workers, and to really contributing to public health infrastructure in Haiti at an important time before and after the earthquake.”

Recognizing a bigger opportunity to contribute to social change, Anthony-Shaw left Arcade Fire in 2014 to found PLUS1 and dedicate herself to “harnessing the collective energy of millions of concertgoers to create lasting change, one dollar at a time”. The registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization’s mission is to keep artists doing what they do best – making art and bringing people together. “Being a spokesperson for a social issue isn’t necessarily our expertise,” Anthony-Shaw observes of artists, “so what was missing was, how do we leverage what we are doing as artists – being conveners of humans?”.

A New System For Impact

Turning concerts into opportunities for impact was about more than the extra dollar. “The dollar is a gesture and it feels good, but at the end of the day we’re aiming for a measurable, transparent system of impact,” Anthony-Shaw said. PLUS1 became, in essence, what she described as a “philanthropic concierge” for the music industry. It set up an infrastructure so that any artist could say “Yes, I want to give back,” without worrying that their efforts would be mishandled or superficial. “We created this movement of 400 artists who have put up their hands to say, ‘I’m going to invest a portion of my ticket into communities that need it,’ through this system where I can trust that it’s going to work,” Anthony-Shaw explained.

Over the past decade, PLUS1 has partnered with hundreds of performers and funneled more than $32 million to over 1,000 nonprofits worldwide – from funding health clinics and food banks in tour cities, to building schools and youth centers.

Artists As Impact Leaders

The growth of PLUS1 coincides with a broader cultural shift: over the past ten years, activism has become prominent in the entertainment world. Younger audiences increasingly expect their favorite artists to take a stand on critical issues such as social justice, mental health, and climate change.

However, artists who choose to publicly support social causes also have a complex space to navigate. According to the 2024 Study, Public, advocacy helps musicians’ fame and fortune, if the causes musicians advocate for are divisive, such as support for women’s abortion rights or refugees, they risk alienating part of their fanbase. This can lead to backlash and a potential loss of support from fans who hold opposing views.

For example, in 2019, Taylor Swift released the song “You Need To Calm Down” supporting the LGBTQ+ advocacy group GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation). The song contains the lyrics: “Why are you mad? When you could be GLAAD?” This led to a surge in donations to the organization, but some criticized Swift as jumping on the bandwagon to stay relevant.

The study also found that when musicians consistently advocate for social and charity causes, the public — especially those who also support the same causes — gradually recognizes their sincerity and commitment to causes, respects them for doing so, and shares their views through more likes, shares and comments. “We work with the artists who are our partners on how loud or how quiet their actions are going to be,” said Anthony-Shaw. “There are some of our artists that want to be quiet about investing back into communities, and that’s okay.”

Authentic Impact

“I think being human is at the root of our ethos – at the end of the day, we’re making an impact and it’s not just empty words,” said Anthony-Shaw of PLUS1’s philosophy. The artists that work with PLUS1 embed social good into their work in a way that feels genuine to who they are. “Our intention was never for this to be a huge brand exercise for PLUS1. We’d rather see the work get done.” Over 11 years Anthony-Shaw and her team have built trust within the live music industry by delivering results. “We’ve grown 50% year over year, both in terms of the number of tours and grants. I think that’s a message that what you’re doing is important, that it’s needed right now, and that it will keep growing.”

PLUS1 serves as more than a pass-through for donations; it’s a strategic partner that helps artists contribute to social change in ways that align with their passions and resonate with fans. The organization’s leadership is based on three key strengths.

Artistic and Philanthropic Expertise: Anthony-Shaw’s team is fluent in both the artist’s world and the nonprofit world. They’re trusted to preserve an artist’s authentic voice while also ensuring that funds get directed to impact initiatives that have measurable outcomes. For example, helping a musician like Carpenter identify reputable mental health organizations, or advising how a rock band can support local food banks in each tour city.

Turnkey Infrastructure: PLUS1 lowers the barriers for artists to act responsibly. It handles the logistics so that doing good becomes essentially turnkey for the artist. “We recognize many artists want to start a fund in their own name, and so we do that with them,” Anthony-Shaw explains, citing recent examples like the Jessie Reyez Fund and Bright Eyes’s Poison Oak Project fund, which PLUS1 administers behind the scenes. This lets artists lend their name and vision to a cause without having to build a charity from scratch.

Scale: Because PLUS1 works across hundreds of tours, it can mobilize fan communities and sustain long-term programs. “We have 91 tours out simultaneously right now and each of them is between 35 and 45 shows,” said Anthony-Shaw. “Think of the impact from all those tickets from those shows in all of the different regions and cities across the country, happening together.”

What began as Arcade Fire’s charitable initiative a decade ago has evolved into a global coalition of artists committed to purpose as part of what they do at every concert. “Less than a year ago, I launched a fund with PLUS1 around the Short n’ Sweet tour to help support some of the issue areas that matter most to me—mental health, animal welfare and LGBTQ+ rights,” said Sabrina Carpenter. “I’m so grateful that I get to use my platform to amplify the work of incredible organizations like the JED Foundation, PAPYRUS, and Rainbow Railroad.”

“We’re building a collective movement for the industry that’s having meaningful social impact because it’s doing more than fragmented efforts,” Anthony-Shaw says, describing PLUS1’s role in uniting artists across genres. From pop idols and indie rockers to country singers, comedians and athletes, the community of PLUS1 partners is united by the idea that doing good can be a seamless part of doing what they love.