This Hollywood Power Couple Gave Millions to Help Ukrainians. What Other Causes Do They Support?

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Hollywood actress Mila Kunis, 38, was born in Ukraine in 1983. In 1991, she and her Jewish family left what was then the Soviet Union and arrived in the United States on a religious refugee visa. The family of seven had $250 to their name when they immigrated. Kunis learned English in acting school, and seven years later, landed her first major role as Jackie Burkhart in “That ’70s Show,” alongside her now husband Ashton Kutcher, also a successful actor turned producer and investor.

Collectively, the Hollywood power couple are worth as much as $250 million by some estimates, and have engaged in growing levels of philanthropy. But their biggest splash to date was, understandably, in response to the Russian-Ukraine war. In early March, the couple started a GoFundMe page to benefit Flexport.org and Airbnb.org, groups carrying out on-the-ground refugee and humanitarian aid efforts for Ukrainians in need.

The couple said that they would match up to $3 million.

On the fund’s page, they write: “While we are witnessing the bravery of Ukrainians, we are also bearing witness to the unimaginable burden of those who have chosen safety. Countless amounts of people have left everything they know and love behind to seek refuge. With nothing but what they could carry, these Ukrainian refugees are in need of housing and supplies right away.”

As of March 28, the fund has raised more than $35 million across nearly 75,000 donations.

One of the benefits of being celebrity philanthropists, of course, is the powerful ability to rally not only your own substantial resources around a cause, but also your legion of fans and fellow well-to-do celebs. We’ve seen it countless times in the charitable activities of stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Rihanna and the members of BTS.

These days, however, Kutcher’s ties to Silicon Valley might be as strong as his ties to Hollywood. When I spoke with venture capitalist Ron Conway late last year, he explained that he took the Hollywood star under his wing and helped him with his fledgling career as an investor. Kutcher co-founded Sound Ventures, and has stakes in top-flight companies including Uber, Airbnb, Spotify, Shazam and SoundCloud. He also co-founded A Plus, an online media platform that produces uplifting stories.

Conway himself contributed $2.5 million to the couple’s GoFundMe campaign. Other top donors to the fund included Larry Ellison, fashion model Karlie Kloss and her husband Joshua Kushner (brother of Jared Kushner — yes, that Jared Kushner).

The couple’s support for Ukrainians has certainly demonstrated their ability to pack a big philanthropic punch for the right cause. But what about some of Kutcher and Kunis’ other philanthropy?

Conway explained to me that Kutcher started thinking much more seriously about giving when he started investing. Kutcher told Conway that he “wanted to find a charity that would be on his tombstone.” In other words, he wanted to throw his full weight behind the right cause.

“Once I started to gain some level of fame, I was constantly being asked to lend my name to this or that,” Kutcher once told W Magazine. “And I was wondering, is there a single cause that I can really get behind?” 

Ultimately, after some research, Kutcher finally found that cause. Moved by a documentary about children in Cambodia, Kutcher felt compelled to act. In 2012, he co-founded Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children, which builds digital tools and programs to defend children from sexual abuse across the United States. Since its founding, Thorn has tapped a range of technologies to aid in the fight. In 2014, Thorn’s team prototyped a product to aid in identifying child sex trafficking victims who were sold online and provided it at no cost to law enforcement. Thorn has partnered with companies including Vimeo, Imgur and GoDaddy to continue to build out these tools.

During the pandemic, Kunis and Kutcher also launched Quarantine Wine, directing profits to several relief organizations. The wine sold out in eight hours and raised $1 million.

With their mix of donations and fundraising — along with a flair for branding — Kunis and Kutcher are walking in the long tradition of celebrities using their platforms and fame to galvanize giving and awareness in times of crisis. But this power couple is especially noteworthy because of their ability to pull the levers of both Hollywood and Silicon Valley largesse — tapping both sources of wealth as their philanthropic story continues to be written.