08/25/2026
In Fall 2016, the people of Gatlinburg, Tennessee found themselves in a predicament as deadly fires ripped through Sevier County, leaving thousands of families homeless.
Enter Dolly Parton, who, within 48 hours of the fires had mobilized the considerable force of her empire, including many businesses and the philanthropic Dollywood Foundation, to provide cash assistance to families impacted in her native Sevier County.
Over the next six months, her My People’s Fund distributed $9 million in cash to nearly 1000 families who had lost their homes. The way the checks were structured will sound familiar to any student of basic income; each family received a monthly check for $1000 for six months, with a final check for $5000 in May of this year.
In a video announcing the fund, Parton said “we want to provide a hand up to all those families that have lost everything in the fires”.
Among the numbers used to demonstrate the need for a basic income today, one sticks to the ribs like no other: almost half of Americans cannot come up with $400 to cover an emergency expense. That emergency could be as mundane as a towed car, as harrowing as a trip to the emergency room, or as catastrophic as a natural disaster overtaking your family home.
It is clear that this charity was personal for Parton, but the impact of the money distributed could be a window into how a basic income of $1000 a month could help families across the country.
In a new study from the University of Tennessee, researchers devised a survey to gather information from participants in this unlikely pilot. What they found was that when asked what kind of support was most helpful in the wake of the fires, 11% of respondents said emotional support, 27% said item donations, and a strong majority of 62% said that the cash assistance they received from the fund was most helpful. - Economic Security Project
