Every Major Charity Project by SEVENTEEN: A Decade of Giving Back
CARATs have known it for years, but the numbers are finally catching up to the reputation: SEVENTEEN might be the most consistently philanthropic group in K-pop. Not “consistent” in the sense of one flashy donation a year for press points, either.
This is a group that has treated giving back as part of their identity since practically their debut, long before UNESCO ever entered the picture.
With the group’s UNESCO partnership now expanding into a new Scale-Up Phase as of June 2026 (you can read the full breakdown of that milestone event in our earlier piece on Joshua’s Paris update), it felt like the right moment to zoom out.
Here’s every major charitable project SEVENTEEN has been part of, from their earliest anniversary traditions to their current status as one of UNESCO’s most active Goodwill Ambassadors.
The Anniversary Donation Tradition
Long before international grant schemes, SEVENTEEN built a habit that CARATs came to expect every debut anniversary: give something back.
It started small. For their third anniversary, the members teamed up with a Korean magazine to design personalized T-shirts, with proceeds going to people in need.
A year later, ahead of their fourth anniversary, they donated to a ChildFund Korea campaign supporting housing for children, with Mingyu and Seungkwan personally designing the donation signboard under their fandom’s name, Carat.
Their fifth anniversary donation went toward education for children and teens, including mentoring programs for kids from multicultural families and scholarship support.
For their sixth, the group partnered with the humanitarian organization Good Neighbors to help children who had experienced abuse, funding both their recovery and psychological treatment.
Their seventh anniversary donation went to UNESCO’s Korean National Commission, supporting a global education-sharing project aimed at children in Africa and Asia —
Arguably the first real thread connecting SEVENTEEN to the organization they’d later represent as ambassadors.
Even earlier than that, in 2017, the group took part in “Letters from Angels,” an adoption-awareness campaign run alongside Korea’s Social Welfare Society to support orphans and single mothers.
Environmental Giving
SEVENTEEN’s charity work hasn’t been limited to education and child welfare. In 2020, the group collaborated with designer Francesca Amfitheatrof and her brand Thief and Heist on a limited-edition bracelet made from recycled plastic.
A portion of the proceeds from that collection was donated to Plastic Bank, an organization focused on reducing ocean plastic and supporting recycling communities.
Building the UNESCO Relationship
The UNESCO partnership that now defines much of SEVENTEEN’s public charity work didn’t appear overnight — it was built over roughly three years before the group ever received an official title.
The foundation was laid when Pledis Entertainment signed an agreement with the Korean National Commission for UNESCO to deepen cooperation on education, which included hosting a domestic “Going Together” campaign encouraging youth to engage with education.
The group later expanded that campaign by donating part of the profits from their Be the Sun world tour.
In early 2023, to mark International Day of Education, the Korean National Commission for UNESCO released a font inspired by SEVENTEEN’s mascot Bongbongie, available for download after a minimum $1.50 donation — a small but clever way of turning a fandom mascot into a literacy fundraiser.
Later that year, in November 2023, the group traveled to UNESCO headquarters in Paris for the 13th UNESCO Youth Forum, delivering a speech and performing live in France for the first time, drawing more than 40 million views online.
Then in April 2024, SEVENTEEN partnered with the Korean National Commission for UNESCO to fund the establishment of two community learning centers in East Timor, aimed at reaching marginalized students who otherwise lacked access to consistent education.
Becoming UNESCO’s First Goodwill Ambassador for Youth
On June 26, 2024, all of that groundwork led to something historic: SEVENTEEN was named UNESCO’s first-ever Goodwill Ambassador for Youth.
Accepting the role, the group pledged $1 million to launch the “Going Together – For Youth Creativity and Well-Being” Global Youth Grant Scheme, a joint program designed to fund youth-led projects worldwide focused on music, arts, sports, mental health, and community development.
The grant scheme wasn’t symbolic money sitting in an account, either. It went toward a global call for applications, eventually funding 100 youth-led projects across dozens of countries.
In August 2025, around International Youth Day, SEVENTEEN and fellow UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Pharrell Williams launched a charity auction through JOOPITER in collaboration with fashion label sacai. Proceeds from that auction added another $250,000 to the Going Together fund, pushing the group’s personal contribution to roughly $1.25 million.
Domestic Disaster Relief
SEVENTEEN’s giving hasn’t been limited to global, UNESCO-branded initiatives — the group has also shown up quickly for disaster relief closer to home.
In March 2025, as wildfires tore through South Korea’s Ulsan, North Gyeongsang, and South Gyeongsang regions, the group donated 1 billion KRW (roughly $683,000) through the Hope Bridge Korea Disaster Relief Association.
The donation went toward emergency relief supplies, mobile laundry units, and mental health support buses for people staying in temporary shelters. Fans and Korean media both noted the size of the gift put SEVENTEEN’s contribution on par with donations from major domestic corporations.
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The 11th Anniversary and the Laos Donation
Consistent with their long-running anniversary tradition, SEVENTEEN marked their 11th anniversary as a group in 2026 with another donation to the Korean National Commission for UNESCO.
This time funding a scholarship program to support underprivileged lower-secondary school students in Laos. It’s one of the quieter entries on this list, generating far less press than the Paris ceremonies, but it fits the same pattern the group has followed for nearly a decade: when the calendar hits a milestone, they give.
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2026: The Scale-Up Phase
Which brings things to the present. On June 25, 2026, UNESCO and SEVENTEEN marked two years since the Goodwill Ambassador appointment with a high-level event at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, represented by Joshua on behalf of all thirteen members.
The event doubled as the official launch of a new “Scale-Up Phase” for the Going Together grant scheme, in which 10 standout projects from the original 100 grantees will receive additional funding and mentorship through December 2026.
The numbers UNESCO shared at the event give a sense of just how far the fund has reached: 100 youth-led projects across 64 countries, more than 21,000 people directly benefited, over 1.2 million people reached through online awareness campaigns, and more than 700 community-based activities delivered covering mental health, arts, cultural heritage, and social inclusion.
For the fuller story of that Paris event — including what Joshua said on stage and why the group made time for it during one of their busiest, most emotional weeks of the year — check out our full update on the 2026 milestone celebration.
In conclusion : Why This List Matters
It’s easy for celebrity philanthropy to start and stop at a single press release. What makes SEVENTEEN’s charity record stand out is the pattern: anniversary donations that predate any major title, a slow-built relationship with UNESCO that took years before it became official, disaster relief that shows up within days of a crisis, and a nine-figure-won youth fund that keeps getting topped up rather than left to run dry.
Add it all up, and SEVENTEEN’s charitable footprint spans child welfare, education, environmental causes, disaster relief, and youth empowerment on a genuinely global scale — funded, in large part, by the group’s own money rather than corporate sponsorship.
For a thirteen-member act still very much in the middle of an active touring and comeback career, that’s a philanthropic track record most established artists twice their age haven’t matched.
This article is part of KpopFam’s ongoing coverage of SEVENTEEN’s UNESCO partnership. For the latest update on the group’s 2026 milestone celebration in Paris, read our companion piece here.