Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Oprah Winfrey have stirred up controversy by asking fans to donate to a relief fund in the wake of wildfires that swept through Maui, Hawaii.
In Instagram posts on Thursday, the celebrities announced a joint donation of $10 million to the cause and asked others to pitch in with their own money.
It prompted backlash among people who asked why the two didn’t contribute more of their own money, Insider’s Andrew Lloyd reported.
Forbes estimated that Winfrey had more than $2 billion to her name as of Tuesday, while it said Johnson was worth more than $250 million as of February 2022.
In context, the donation to victims in Maui, Hawaii, represented less than 0.5% of their combined estimated wealth.
“We are honored to start this campaign with $10 million dollars and ask for your help in donating to those who have lost their homes,” the caption of an Instagram post shared jointly by the Hollywood stars said.
In a separate Instagram post, Johnson said he contributed $5 million himself, which suggests that Winfrey also contributed $5 million, despite having an estimated net worth about 10 times as much as his.
Johnson added that he planned to “raise and donate much more.”
His donation represents 1.8% of the net worth ascribed to him by Forbes. For an American with a net worth of $150,000 to make an equivalent gift, it would cost them $2,700.
Meanwhile, Winfrey, who owns more than 2,000 acres of land in Hawaii, has a Forbes-estimated net worth of $2.5 billion.
That would mean Winfrey, one of the richest self-made women in America, donated a sum that accounted for about 0.2% of her net worth, roughly the same as a person with a $150,000 net worth giving $300.
Taken together, the pair’s donation represents 0.36% of their combined estimated net worth of $2.77 billion.
The wildfires that ravaged Maui in August, damaging or destroying thousands of structures, led to the deaths of 115 people, with dozens more still unaccounted for, CNN reported.
Johnson and Winfrey’s post soliciting donations said the People’s Fund of Maui would put money “directly in the pockets” of those affected.
The post received more than 60,000 comments, many of them negative.
Insider’s Lloyd reported that numerous fans commented in disbelief that some of the richest people in America were asking for regular people living through a cost-of-living crisis to contribute.
“Math ain’t mathing with this one. You guy’s literally have so much money…. You can donate it and make it back within a year,” one top comment read.
Representatives for Winfrey and Johnson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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