Dianna is a passionate supporter of several charities, a longstanding equality advocate, and she have been very vocal about her support for animals, refugees and LGBT rights. As a vegetarian and long time PETA supporter, animal rights is particularly close to Dianna’s heart. She also lends her name to different welfare organisations, has participated in fundraisers and has done actual field work by travelling to various locations with international organisations. Here you can read more about the causes Dianna supports, as well as read about the different projects she has participated in. You can visit our photo gallery for photos from Dianna’s charity work here, find related videos in our video archive here, and read articles and interviews about Dianna’s activism in our library here.

826LA

826LA is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6–18 with their creative and expository writing skills and helping teachers inspire their students to write. Over the years, Dianna has shown her support for their important cause in several different ways. In 2009, Dianna and the cast of Glee auctioned off some of their favorite children’s books to benefit 825LA. She also hosted a concert and game night called “Chickens in Love“, which eventually became the title of the organization’s compilation album by various artists, released in April 2010 (Chickens in Love: An Album to Benefit 826LA). Then in 2010 she participated in the “A spelling bee for cheaters – Benefit for 826LA Tutoring” on August 14. You can check out some videos of Dianna at the spelling bee in our video archive – hover over the thumbnails for information, and click to watch the clip:

826LA Presents: A SPELLING BEE FOR CHEATERS, a tournament of verbal smarts and fraudulence hosted by 826LA and the creators of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. The event will take place at Lincoln Middle School in Santa Monica at 2:00 p.m. on August 14, 2010. Participants will register online and raise money beforehand to increase their chances of winning. This year, Spike Jonze, John Krasinski, Dianna Agron, Dave Eggers, and others are scheduled to appear. Will YOU be there to out-spell and out-cheat the competition? All money goes to support 826LA’s free writing and tutoring programs for Los Angeles students, ages 6–18. Registration is open to the public at http://www.826la.org/spellingbee. Space is limited, so register today!

For Dianna’s birthday in 2014, her fans put together a fundraiser to raise funds for 826LA. This was a part of the project titled “Project Let Love Reign”, organized by Glee fans Zena (@ZenaChaudhry), Jennifer (@Jennception), Denise (@PrepareAFace), Nadia (@LiveLoveDianna), Sarah (@justme_SMC), Lucia (@Agroness), Laura, and Claire (@AgronNews). “One fundamental way to change the world is to help others gain access to the resources they need to make a difference themselves,” the creators told 826la. “That is why we’ve teamed up with 826LA in raising awareness and capital to ensure their literacy programs will remain sustainable.” The fundraiser ended up collecting $9,250 to 826LA as a birthday present for Dianna.

• Official Website: Find out more about the organization
• YouTube Video Dianna Agron saying Hi to the Project Let Love Reign group

Chickens in Love
Watch: Dianna at “Chickens in Love” Part 1 [x]
Watch: Dianna at “Chickens in Love” Part 2 [x]
Watch: Dianna at “Chickens in Love” Part 3 [x]
Watch: Dianna at “Chickens in Love” Part 4 [x]
Watch: Dianna at “Chickens in Love” Part 5 [x]
Watch: Dianna at “Chickens in Love” Part 6 [x]
Watch: Dianna at “Chickens in Love” Part 7 [x]
Watch: Dianna at “Chickens in Love” Part 8 [x]
Watch: Dianna at “Chickens in Love” Part 9 [x]

Wildlife Waystation

Dianna has made two trips to the Wildlife Waystation in California. Here she was introduced to Sax the lemur and Rowdy the monkey by the staff, who explained how the animal refuge’s residents desperately need assistance. The Wildlife WayStation is a 160 acre animal sanctuary in northern Los Angeles County dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating wild and exotic animals, and the goal with Dianna’s visit was to bring attention to the non-profit sanctuary’s day-to-day needs. “We can’t afford to buy meat at [high] prices, and she was trying to locate someone who would either help us or give us meat or tell us where to buy meat. Most of the facilities that provide animal meat in southern California have been closed down. I wish the whole word was enthused about animals as Dianna is. I think that it’s kind of remarkable that such a young lady with so much going for her in other places would take time out to help something less fortunate.” – Martine Colette, the organization’s founder and director of animal services.

In addition to her visit, Dianna made a post on her (now closed) tumblr page: “Hey guys, can you help? I have been lucky to spend some time with the animals at the Wildlife Waystation, the oldest nonprofit animal sanctuary in the U.S., has been without red meat for a few weeks now due to the supply company having none. They are now needing to go to the store and buy red meat for 4-6 times the amount they normally pay, because not only do some of the animals need red meat for a proper diet, some will not eat anything else. The Wildlife Waystation is in desperate need of donations and a bulk supplier of red meat. If you can help in any way, please do, one way to help immediately is by texting “WILDLIFE” to 20222 to donate just $10.00! Or you can help them by spreading the word on your fb/twitter/tumblr/etc page… PLEASE DO! Go to “Wildlife Waystation Official Fan Page” on Facebook to donate or go to www.wildlifewaystation.org or call 818-899-5201!”

In 2012, Nadia of @LiveLoveDianna entered Dianna for the Bille Celebrity Charity Challenge with the hope of collecting money for the cause close to Dianna’s heart. Every month, the BILLe makes a donation to the preferred charity of the celebrity who earned the most votes at the BILLe’s website. Fans can vote for their idol up to once a day. One fan, selected by draw from all those who voted for the winning celebrity, will get to attend the check presentation and meet said celebrity. €25,000 was donated to the organization after she participated, and you can read Nadia’s story below:

“As many of you know, I entered Dianna into the Bille Celeb Charity Challenge in September 2012 to win money for a charity Dianna had recently visited called Wildlife Waystation. It was based on fan votes and whoever got the most votes would get € 25,000 to the celeb’s charity. Needless to say the competition was fierce but we finally took it in December with over 100,000 votes (Thanks to all of you that voted btw)

I spent two hours with Dianna on Friday February 15th and it’s a day I’ll never forget. We talked about everything from Glee to Malavita. She told me about Arthur’s death, and how it had affected her. I cried when she told me and put my arms around Dianna. She told me she loved me and that I made sure to tell her that she had amazing fans, and that we did everything we did because she was such an inspiration. She told me that I was going to make her cry. I got around 5 hugs from her, and each one I just couldn’t contain my emotion. She’s truly a gift, and I hope that everyone that loves her as I do gets a chance to meet her.

Seeing her crouch and talk to the animals, and almost slip and fall (ADORABLE BTW) she stated that she always slipped but never actually fell. LOL! She laughed at herself because she makes weird noises when she’s taking pictures and I was like I don’t hear it, and she’s like you will. We take one more picture and I heard the noise and she looks at me and smiles and goes “SEE!” She growled and pretended to bite me when Alyson stated “She doesn’t bite!” because I was nervous and didn’t want to be all up in her grill. Her smiles, her genuine laughter, her beauty, all of it was just as amazing in person as it is through the TV, and internet.

As such a big fan, I feared meeting her and realizing that I had built her up in my head, but let me tell you, she’s BETTER in person. She’s the absolute best. She is everything.”

– Read full Interview in our Press archive

United Service Organizations

The United Service Organizations Inc. is a nonprofit organization that provides live entertainment, such as comedians and musicians, and other programs to members of the United States Armed Forces and their families. During the organization’s Chairman’s USO Holiday Tour in 2014, Dianna, country singer Kellie Pickler and her songwriter husband Kyle Jacobs, comedian Rob Riggle, Meghan Markle, retired Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlrcher and Washington Nationals pitcher Doug Fister came along on the tour to show their support for the American troops. The trip included five countries – Spain, Italy, Turkey, Afghanistan and England – to entertain thousands of soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and their families. Four shows took place in hangars, and one took place in a gym. And 10,000 cupcakes sweetened the deal. The performers first met each other at the Joint Base Andrews passenger terminal in Maryland on Dec. 5.

The tour began in Rota, Spain, where they performed in front of around 2000 American service members and their families in a base hangar. After the show, Dianna met with many Glee fans after the performance, and signed autographs and took photos. Next stop was Incirlik in Turkey, where they performed for airmen and their families, who are posted just a few hundred miles from the Syrian civil war. Third stop was at the Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. The show there was in a hangar along the Bagram flightline, and as it was going on, jets and C-130s taxied outside. The tour then ended in Cambridge in England.

UNHCR

UNHCR, or the UN Refugee Agency, is a United Nations programme with the mandate to protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people, and assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to a third country. In 2016, Dianna teamed up with UNHCR after visitng resettled refugees in Austria in 2014. The organisations official website states: Dianna met Nergez and her family, who were forced to flee the Kurdish part of Syria following the outbreak of civil war. Nergez’s father, Hamed, made an arduous journey to Austria hidden in a truck in 2013 while the rest of the family made the dangerous trip to the Austrian embassy in Lebanon to obtain the paperwork for family reunification. With UNHCR’s assistance the family were finally reunited safely in Austria in 2014.

“The language around refugees has become increasingly negative and ugly. There is so much misinformation and scaremongering around who refugees are. It’s as if by dehumanizing refugees it makes it easier to ignore the problem and avoid responsibility for playing a role in being part of the solution. But no one wins by ignoring the humanity of refugees because in doing that we ignore our own humanity and we diminish ourselves.” – Dianna Agron

• Facebook Live Video: Dianna discussing the #WithRefugees campaign
• Read more & Watch the Campaign: On Dianna’s page at the Official UNHCR website

Since then, Dianna has travelled to Jordan where she met Syrian refugees. There they filmed the #WithRefugees film, which features a long list of high profile supporters, as well as refugees and UNHCR staff from around the world. The official website continues: Ahead of a historic Summit on refugees and migrants at the UN General Assembly in September 2016 the #WithRefugees campaign calls on world leaders to act in solidarity and take shared responsibility in their response to the global refugee crisis. Dianna is actively encouraging her friends, family and fans to get behind the campaign and sign the petition.

GLAAD

GLAAD (formerly the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) is a U.S. non-governmental media monitoring organization founded by LGBT people in the media. It was formed in NYC in 1985 after complaints that the New York Post’s coverage of AIDS were both defamotory and sensationalized. The organization wanted to put pressure on the media to end the homophobic reporting. On June 2nd 2012, Dianna hosted the GLAAD Media Awards in San Francisco. The GLAAD Media Award is an accolade bestowed by the GLAAD to recognize and honor various branches of the media for their outstanding representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and the issues that affect their lives. Her Glee co-stars Naya Rivera and Cory Monteith hosted the New York awards just a few months earlier, where Naya auctioned off a kiss to a member of the audience. Dianna followed up by doing the same, and raised $5,500 for the campaign.

“Some of you may know I grew up in the Bay Area, so to be hosting this event is truly wonderful and very surreal,” Agron told the crowd at the show. “Thanks to GLAAD, we have a group of people working to be sure that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people are being depicted in the media with fair and accurate portrayals.”

Following the awards, GLAAD announced in October 2012 that Dianna had signed on as a Spirit Day Ambassador. The ambassadors are committed to taking a stand against bullying while showing their support for LGBT youth, and Dianna is quoted at the organisation’s official website saying:

“Everyone wants to feel special. Loved. Included. Are you going to be the person to prevent that from happening? I know I am not, not ever, and I feel compelled to do everything I can in this lifetime to encourage others to be loving and supportive people. Not everyone is going to be like you, and how boring would it be if they were! Let love in and be love. Those are the words that I live by. What are the words that you choose to live by? Think about it.” – Dianna Agron

• Youtube Video: Dianna hosting the GLAAD awards
• Youtube Video: Dianna auctioning of a Kiss at the GLAAD awards

UNICEF

In 2016, UNICEF launched the world version of John Lennon’s classic song Imagine today with the support of Yoko Ono, David Guetta and people from over 140 countries around the world. The UNICEF Imagine project, which launched on International Children’s Day 2014, invited people to help re-record the iconic track. The resulting video features a number of UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors and global influencers, alongside people who uploaded their own version via a purpose-built App. Entries were received from every region of the world, including Antarctica and the International Space Station. This world version of Imagine shines a spotlight on the 28 million children around the world who have been driven from their homes due to conflict. The video was even previewed to world leaders at the United Nations Summit on Migrants and Refugees in the UN General Hall. You can listen to Dianna’s video below.

Other Causes

Glee Give A Note campaign: As the economy continues to stumble, school music and fine arts classes are the first to feel the impact with drastic budget cuts and elimination of departments. The “GLEE Give a Note” campaign aims to soften the blow, and reignite public passion for supporting student arts programs and the teachings they provide to students. Through the campaign, the network, the cast, crew and supporters provided $1 million in donations to support music education, which saw schools in Ohio, New York and Alabama each receive $50,000 in grand prize cash.

The American Red Cross: The American Red Cross, also known as The American National Red Cross, is a humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. On January 23, 2010, Dianna attended the Youth Run for Haiti benefit in Santa Monica, California. On March 27, 2011, Dianna and her “I Am Number Four” co-star Teresa Palmer participated in the “Relief Run” to raise money for the organization’s Japan earthquake and Pacific tsunami fund. Dianna hosted the fundraiser along with Josh Duhamel.

The Trevor Project: The Trevor Project is an American non-profit organization founded in 1998 focused on suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth. Through a toll-free telephone number, it operates The Trevor Lifeline, a confidential service that offers trained counselors. In 2012, Dianna teamed up with the project for her birthday, to raise money for the NGO.

Vietnam Veterans of America: Vietnam Veterans of America, Inc. (VVA) is a national non-profit corporation founded in 1978 in the United States that is committed to serving the needs of all veterans. In August 2013, Dianna donated a truckload’s worth of her possessions to the organization.

War Child: In 2014, Dianna traveled to the sunny and semi-snow-covered mountains of Gstaad, where ASMALLWORLD hosted its tenth anniversary winter gala to benefit War Child, a nonprofit organization providing support for young people and their families affected by war. While at the event, Dianna took to the stage during the auction to offer a kiss to one lucky guest. Several guests battled for the prize, and in the end one man came out on top with a $23,000 bid. “The winner was a gentleman who was there with his girlfriend,” an eyewitness told E! News. “It was very innocent and in the name of charity auction.” All the money went to War Child.

Camp Wonder and Cetaphil: Dianna supports the initiative between Camp Wonder and Cetaphil, which is about children with chronic and life-threatening skin diseases to enjoy being a kid. Camp Wonder is the name of medically staffed summer camps sponsored by the nonprofit organization Children’s Skin Disease Foundation (CSDF). Camp Wonder was established in 2001 by Francesca Tenconi, Dr. Jenny Kim and Dr. Stefani Takahashi at the UCLA School of Medicine to provide a free medically staffed summer camp experience for children with skin disease. The first Camp Wonder was established in Livermore, California in 2001. Dianna signed a card featuring the Cetaphil special edition product label designed by former camper, now counselor, Jassamine Domino.

Big Slick Foundation: Dianna joined the Big Slick Foundation’s weekend charity event to help raise funds for Children’s Mercy Hospital of Kansas City, Missouri in June 2014, along with other celebrities. Among the events she was involved in was a celebrity softball game, a private get-together for patients and celebrities, a bowling tournament, and a celebrity party and auction.

Young Storytellers Foundation: The Young Storytellers Foundation (YSF) is a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization dedicated to developing literacy, self-expression and self-esteem in elementary school students through the art of storytelling. YSF currently serves over 2,500 students in Los Angeles public schools where the concentration of poverty is high and academic performance tends to be low. In 2014, Dianna and some of her Glee co-stars starred in the Foundation‘s show “Glee Big Show” to raise money for the foundation.

Toms’ ‘One Day Without Shoes’ Campaign: On April 29, 2014, Dianna, Jaimie King, Brooklyn Decker and her hubby Andy Roddick, Ashley Benson, and others hosted the Toms’ One Day Without Shoes event. Toms is challenging Americans to go one day without shoes to help raise global awareness about children’s health and education needs. During the campaign period (which is annual), Toms will donate a new pair of shoes to a child in need for every person who posts their bare feet on Instagram with the hashtag #withoutshoes, up to a million pairs.

Time’s Up: Time’s Up is a movement against sexual harassment and was founded on January 1, 2018, by Hollywood celebrities in response to the Weinstein effect and #MeToo. Unsurprisingly, Dianna was quick to show support for the movement, which works for causes close to her heart. The TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund provides subsidized legal support to those who have experienced sexual harassment, assault, or abuse in the workplace. Dianna posted a “Time’s up” photo on instagram on January 4, captioning it: “This cause is universal, this is an unprecedented effort to date. Thanks to the courage of all the women who were willing to stand up for justice, here we are. Let’s keep moving forward. Legal defense, legislation, equal pay. I’ve signed and donated.”