The inaugural Social Impact Summit, co-hosted by The Hollywood Reporter and the Social Impact Fund, honored Feeding America as THR's Philanthropic Organization of the Year. Uzo Aduba, Wilson Cruz, Thomas Sadoski and Julie Bowen were among the celebrities who took part in the event. To kick start the summit, actress and longtime activist Sharon Stone shared an expletive-sprinkled keynote address, where she challenged the audience to see philanthropy in a new light: simply that of love.
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00:00You know, when it comes to philanthropy, which is something that my family and I have been
00:09doing basically our whole lives, I grew up in the country in a very small town.
00:16And we didn't call it philanthropy back there.
00:19We called it being a good neighbor.
00:24When my dad made $14,000 a year and raised four kids and we were one of the wealthier
00:31families, we thought we were good.
00:37And when the neighbors, you know, a mile down the road with seven or eight kids and they
00:45didn't have food for Thanksgiving or Christmas or gifts, we made it for them and put together
00:53gifts and I don't know how, and then we wrapped them and then we took the car and we turned
01:00off the engine about a quarter of a mile from their house and drifted the car up and then
01:07we snuck out of the car and put everything on their doorstep.
01:12That wasn't called philanthropy.
01:16It was called love.
01:19And so I say to you, what is love?
01:26Because I think we're at a time in the world where that is really the question.
01:32What is love?
01:34And I think it begins truly with forgiveness.
01:39Because for whatever your beliefs may be, whatever you call the God experience in your
01:46life and in your world, the higher power, the love of nature, the spiritual inclination,
01:53that is love.
01:56And that energetic feeling is that of self-forgiveness first.
02:02Because we must love ourselves.
02:05We must love ourselves to love another.
02:08And to love ourselves wholly and fully, we must forgive ourselves.
02:12We must forgive ourselves for even the unforgivable things that we have done.
02:17And by doing that, we must set down our shame.
02:21And we must understand that all of us have been shameful and we have all been shamed.
02:28And we must earn our own self-forgiveness by facing ourselves truly and genuinely.
02:35And then to forgive another, we must stand with them while they face their own shame.
02:41And then we must embrace them and allow them to love their failed humanity as we love our
02:46own failed humanity.
02:50There have been times in my life of tremendous trauma.
02:54And I begin to believe that the purpose of life itself is to understand our trauma, survive
03:01it, and teach others to do the same.
03:05This for me is really what philanthropy is.
03:11In my many years of being a field worker for HIV-AIDS, in the beginning I thought, I am
03:18going to find the cure for AIDS.
03:20I will get the money.
03:21I will do this thing.
03:27I was young.
03:29I was young and I really thought, that Elizabeth Taylor, she got this thing going and look
03:34at me.
03:35I'm going to wrap it up.
03:40I was so young.
03:42And I totally fucked up my acting career and messed up what people thought about me and
03:48became this really eccentric, crazy woman who went around the world begging for money
03:54and crying and failing and messing up and hoping and studying in laboratories with scientists
04:01and going in orphanages with babies and children who had AIDS who were dying and mothers who
04:08were going to die before their children.
04:11I saw the world.
04:13And I really learned what philanthropy meant.
04:19And it meant forgiving myself and forgiving others because there were a lot of people
04:23to forgive.
04:25While I did that 30-year journey, there were a lot of people who really needed a lot of
04:31fucking forgiveness.
04:37And let me tell you, it was really hard to forgive a lot of those motherfuckers.
04:48I've been on my knees a lot.
04:52And I will tell you that if you cannot forgive, you cannot serve.
04:57You must learn to forgive.
05:00And you must learn to give.
05:02And even if you push someone to the ground, you better learn how to get them back up again.
05:07And if even someone pushed you to the ground, you better reach out and put up your hand
05:12and you better let that very same motherfucker pick you up.
05:17Because that is the way the world works.
05:20If you think you are here to do anything else on this planet, you have not yet learned
05:25the meaning of love, the meaning of giving, and the meaning of philanthropy.
05:30And that is why I am your opening speaker.
05:39I will tell you for sure that not everybody has liked me, not everybody has loved me,
05:44and not everyone has forgiven me.
05:46But I stand here not in my shame.
05:50I stand here in my love.
05:53And I love you.
05:55And I thank you.
05:56And I am on my knees to ask you to love me back, to love the person next to you.
06:05And so I would like you to turn to the person next to you.
06:08And I would like you to look at them.
06:12And even if you never met them, I would like you to forgive them.
06:18And accept them.
06:21And let them know it.
06:24Because that is your courageous act today.
06:27That is your act of philanthropy.
06:30Thank you.
06:31Goodbye.
06:32Thank you.
06:33Thank you.
06:34Thank you.
06:35Thank you.
06:36Thank you.
06:37Thank you.
06:38Thank you.
06:39Thank you.
06:40Thank you.