Philanthropy
World Peace has remained an active contributor in his hometown and in the cities of organizations for which he has played, working simultaneously in global regions that require urgent humanitarian aid. He formed his nonprofit, “Xcel University,” to officially organize and streamline his charitable contributions and community endeavors under one umbrella.
World Peace joined a contingent of representatives from the NBA Players Association and the Feed the Children program on a goodwill mission to Africa in July 2007, helping to distribute more than one million meals to impoverished areas in Nairobi as part of the NBPA’s “Feeding One Million” campaign. He reunited with the Feed the Children program for a mission to Central America in August 2007, delivering rations and supplies to deprived areas throughout Honduras. World Peace paid for the costs of setting up an HIV testing clinic for Project Contact Africa in Nairobi, Kenya in 2007, and in 2008 made another donation to pay for HIV testing supplies and the salaries of lab technicians for the year.
World Peace became a spokesman in the PETA’s (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) A.B.C. (Animal Birth Control) campaign in 2007, which is ongoing today. He sponsored a spay and neutering program of Pit Bulls at the Sacramento chapter of the SPCA, personally covering all costs for each pet owner, and is a celebrity supporter of Best Friends Animal Society. In the fall of 2008, Metta launched “The Artest Math Masters” program at Felix Cook Jr. Elementary School in partnership with the Houston Independent School District, which rewarded students who maintained high grades in Mathematics during the 2008-2009 school year.
In fall 2010, World Peace decided to raffle off his 2010 NBA World Championship Ring, with the proceeds going to his nonprofit, Xcel University. The online ring raffle, which concluded on December 25, 2010, raised $651,006. Funds raised through the ring raffle were earmarked to be donated to nonprofits that provide mental health therapists and mental health services to those who wouldn’t be able to otherwise afford them. World Peace has also partnered with Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health in a TV and print PSA campaign to raise awareness of the importance of good mental health, and is a task force member of "The Mental Health in Schools Act," authored by Congresswoman Grace Napolitano (D-38). He made a trip to Washington, DC in February 2011 to speak with members of Congress on the importance of the bill.
World Peace has visited dozens of community centers, schools and libraries in low income areas of numerous cities throughout his career, speaking to kids about the virtues of education and a life devoid of violence and drugs, and on the importance of getting a college education. He has played in several Wheelchair Charities, Inc. Basketball Classics in New York City, which raises funding to assist paraplegic, quadriplegic and amputee patients. He has sponsored numerous summer basketball tournaments in the Queensbridge Projects in New York City; sends kids from Queensbridge to summer camps; and pays private school tuitions for kids from Queensbridge who show academic promise to attend private schools.
Metta World Peace and Xcel University recently made donations from the proceeds of his online ring raffle to eight different mental health organizations. Representatives from 6 of those organizations came to Los Angeles to meet Metta in person and receive their checks, and also attended the Dancing With the Stars show on September 20.
Please select a language below
