Bernie Sanders Charity Work, Events and Causes

Bernie Sanders is the junior United States Senator from Vermont, and is running for President of the United States in the 2016 election.

Sanders began campaigning for civil and minority rights in the 1950s. While in high school he aimed to raise scholarship funds for Korean orphans, and he called for gay equality 40 years ago while running for office in Vermont. Bernie was arrested in 1962 for protesting against segregation in schools, and in 1963 he joined the March on Washington. An article on Alternet lists 19 ways Sanders has stood up for civil and minority rights.

He has also supported parent-child centers and senior citizens groups. In 2011, he gave his book royalties, nearly $23,000, to the Addison County Parent/Child Center. In October, 2015, Sanders refused to keep a campaign contribution donated by a pharmaceutical CEO who controversially raised the price of an AIDS medication. Instead, he donated $2,700, the maximum amount allowed from a private donor, to Whitman-Walker Health, a clinic that specializes in the treatment of HIV patients.