Today's Charity of the Day is co-owned by none other than Madonna herself. When Michael Berg and Madonna founded Raising Malawi (RM), their goal was to help over one million orphaned children in Malawi that suffer from deadly diseases, extreme poverty and the effects of severe drought. Raising Malawi volunteers are hard at work, fund-raising, conducting research, and raising awareness. Check out this organization's website, there is a heartwarming and educational letter that Madonna wrote about Malawi and the children that reside there.

Goods for Good has a simple goal, to redistribute excess goods that sit unused in the US, to needy children in Africa. They provide much needed school supplies, clothing, and health and hygiene products to children in crisis, while at the same time reducing waste and overstock at home. Donations are received from a wide range of companies and the sorting and shipping is done by volunteers. If your company has outdated or unused inventory (office supplies, fabric, teaching or marketing tools...) that you wish to discard in an environmentally friendly way, contact this worthwhile organization today!

Arizona real estate developer Jerry Bisgrove makes our Big Givers list with the recent announcement in the Arizona Republic that he has pledged $25 million to the Valley of the Sun United Way Foundation. For every dollar pledged to the United Way over the next five years, Bisgrove's Stardust Foundation will give 50 cents up to $25 million. The donation is the third-largest pledge to any United Way in the country. In recent years, Bisgrove has also donated more than $25 million to Science Foundation Arizona and $20 million to the Arizona Family Housing Fund. Bisgrove has also been a member of the United Way Foundation's Tocqueville Society for more than 16 years, a club for those who give over $10,000 each year. His foundation focuses on lower income families and neighborhoods and has also give to the Arizona Humane Society, the YMCA, Habitat for Humanity and the Macehualli Work Center, a day-laborer center. Bisgrove made his money in trucking but is now the chairman and CEO of Stardust Companies which includes Stardust Development, a a real estate land development company, developing approximately 3,000 lots per year.

The Nancy Davis Foundation was created in 1993, after Nancy learned she had multiple sclerosis. She was told by her doctor she would be lucky to even be able to perform simple tasks for much longer. Determined to prove her doctors dismal diagnosis wrong, she vowed to keep a positive attitude, an active lifestyle, and search for a cure. Today, the Race to Erase MS has grown into a spectacular celebrity gala benefit held annually, with over $30 million raised for multiple sclerosis research to date! All earnings go directly to one of the nation's top MS research centers. Here's a fashionable and easy way you can help, by purchasing a Nancy Davis MS T-Shirt. Cute and affordable, (only $25) that's a purchase you can feel good about!

The Global Campaign For Education (GCE) is a movement of people worldwide who share the common belief that education should be a basic human right. Quality public education is key in ending the cycle of poverty and in reducing inequality. Sadly all over the globe millions of children don't attend school. GCE brings public awareness to this problem and pressures government to make changes. Latin singing sensation Shakira recently went before congress on behalf of GCE, seeking US aid for education programs in poor nations. I love when celebrities help raise awareness for important issues and I can't think of a better one than this. Education shouldn't be a privilege, it's a basic human need and should be available free of charge to ALL. Join the millions who support GCE!

Vitamin Angles is a charity devoted to ending childhood diseases caused by micronutrient deficiencies worldwide, their primary focus being childhood blindness as a result of Vitamin A defiency. Their Operation 20/20 vows to achieve this goal by the year 2020. This year alone, Vitamin Angels expansive reach will provide 4.5 million children in 18 countries, the necessary nutrients to save their eyesight. The amazing part is that it costs only $1 to save a child's vision! Recently LA Ink's Kat Von D, raised enough money for Vitamin Angels to save 32,000 children from going blind, what a huge accomplishment! To learn how she did it and how you too can help visit vitaminangels.org.

Dame Anita Roddick, the founder of The Body Shop who died in 2007, makes our Big Givers list posthumously. The Telegraph reports on the details of her estate which were recently revealed. Roddick donated her entire £51 million fortune to philanthopic causes before her death from a brain hemorrhage in September 2007. She had once referred to leaving money to your family after death as obscene and wanted her money to go toward green issues and work in developing countries. She left behind £665,747 which all went to inheritance tax because per the rules in the U.K. individuals have to pay this tax if they do not survive for seven years after making monetary gifts. She had founded The Body Shop in 1976 and sold to L'Oreal in 2006 for £625 million.

The NY Times reported a big donation on Wednesday. Kenneth G. Langone, a billionaire financier and a founder of Home Depot will be giving a $100 million donation to New York University Medical Center, which is the same amount he donated anonymously to the center in 1999. In honor of the $200 million total gifts from Langone and his wife Elaine, the university will name the medical center the N.Y.U. Langone Medical Center. They will also start a campaign to raise $1 billion for a new hospital pavilion. Langone was named chairman of the medical center's board nine years ago which led to his first donation (and the reason for it being anonymous).

In an ironic turn, former governor Eliot Spitzer's father, Bernard will be treated at the center. Langone and Eliot Spitzer have been involved in a long-standing feud and when Spitzer was seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in 2006, Langone contributed to the campaign of an opponent, Thomas R. Suozzi, the Nassau County executive. Langone is quoted in the TImes article as saying he hopes that Bernard Spitzer has a successful stay.

Our latest Big Giver is Wall Street bond manager, Bill Gross, or as I like to fondly call him, the Philanthropic Philatelist, will offer the Scandinavia portion of his extensive, international stamp collection in a public auction which is conservatively estimated to bring over $1 million. Proceeds from the collection's sale will be donated by Sue and Bill Gross to the Millennium Villages Project at the Earth Institute at Columbia University. The Spink Shreves Galleries of New York City and Dallas will conduct the sale in New York City on May 16, 2008.

The collection has 110 rare and even several one-of-a-kind 19th and early 20th century Scandinavian stamps including an unusual printing 152 years ago of Finland's first postage stamps that shows adjoining images that are upside down to each other, a peculiar placement known as tête-bêche. Charles Shreve of Spink Shreves Galleries says that the piece, a mint condition block of four stamps containing two pair of 10 kopek denomination stamps, the first stamps of Finland from 1856, is one of only three known and estimated to sell for $100,000 to $150,000; however, Shreve expects the winning bid will be even higher.

This isn't the Gross's first shot at stamp philanthropy, the Great Britain portion of his stamp collection was sold through Spink Shreves Galleries in June 2007, and he and his wife, Sue, donated the entire $9.1 million auction proceeds to charity.

The Millennium Villages Project is working to create health, education, agriculture and infrastructure programs to help some of the poorest people throughout the African continent through simple concrete means such as bed nets to fight malaria, seeds and fertilizer to increase food production, the building of schools and clinics, and safe water. The stamps will be displayed for potential bidders at the Spink Galleries in London, England, May 5 – 7, and at the New York City offices of the auction house, May 9 – 12 and May 15.

We love the stories of big donations, this one comes from Scotland. Duncan Bannatyne, a panellist on BBC One's Dragons' Den, has announced that he is setting up a foundation to give his money away. He has promised to leave most of his £200 million fortune, made through nursing homes and health clubs, to charity. The Scotsman quotes Bannatyne as saying that he believes giving away the money you make is the best reason for making it in the first place.

Bannatyne, who has six children, has also made a documentary called Britain's Rich List: Giving It Away which will show him meeting other wealthy people, finding out what they are doing with their money and persuading them to give more money to charity.

For almost a decade Love Our Children USA has been committed to stopping all forms of violence and neglect against children. Their goal is to keep children safe and strengthen families. Programs range from education and advocacy, to raising awareness and financial support for at risk children. One of the fun ways you can help is by supporting their exciting online auctions. This week they are selling 2 front row tickets to the April 14th taping of American Idol ! Bidding starts at $3,750, and proceeds go directly to the Love Our Children programs. Check out all their upcoming auctions here, what a great way to give back and score entry to some A list events!

Eight-time Grammy winner musician Herb Alpert is giving back to the music community in a big way. Alpert, a famed trumpeter with the band the Tijuana Brass, and one of the co-founders of the A&M record label in 1962, established the philanthropic Alpert Foundation in 1988. Last November he pledged $30 million to UCLA to create the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music and the LA TImes reports that he has just given $15 million to the School of Music at the California Institute of the Arts. The school will be renamed the Herb Alpert School of Music. The gift will endow faculty chairs and provide money for scholarships and music programs.

Over the past 16 years the Alpert Foundation has given grants to CalArts in order to support the Dizzy Gillespie chair in music, the Dizzy Gillespie Recording Studio, music programs, scholarships and community education programs for children. WIth the $15 million, Alpert has now given nearly $24 million to the school. The foundation has also donated $100 million to musicians, students and other programs around the country.

How does a trumpeter have so much money? Alpert and Jerry Moss sold A&M records to PolyGram in 1989 for a reported $500 million and are also said to have picked up an additional $363 million in stock and cash when they sold a music publishing company to Seagram in 2000.