Claim:
In August 2025, MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell donated his $12.9 million bonus to fund a homeless shelter initiative in Michigan.
Rating:
Rating: False
In August 2025, a rumor that circulated online claimed Lawrence O’Donnell, the longtime host of MSNBC’s prime-time program “The Last Word,” donated his entire $12.9 million bonus to fund a homeless shelter initiative in Michigan.
For example, a Facebook page called Oshovichar made a post (archived) on Aug. 7 about the rumor that had receiving more than 53,000 reactions as of this writing. It read: “BREAKING NEWS: Lawrence O’Donnell Donates Entire $12.9 Million Bonus to Fund Homeless Shelter Initiative.”
(Oshovichar/Facebook)
Similar claims appeared elsewhere on Facebook. Some of those posts featured links leading to articles hosted by advertisement-filled WordPress blogs. Snopes readers also emailed us to ask whether the rumor was true.
We have rated the claim false. Searches of Bing (archived), DuckDuckGo (archived) and Google found no news media outlets reporting on O’Donnell’s purported donation. Prominent news media outlets, including MSNBC, would have widely reported this rumor, if true.
Rather, the person or people who wrote the blog post fabricated the entire story as one of hundreds of inspirational tales about celebrities’ acts of kindness. They aimed to earn advertising revenue on websites linked from the aforementioned Facebook posts.
The blog post claimed O’Donnell’s donation would finance “the creation of 150 permanent housing units and 300 emergency shelter beds for individuals and families experiencing homelessness” through an initiative called the “Second Chance Housing Project.” The story included alleged quotes from O’Donnell saying he had “seen the effects of homelessness firsthand” and promised that “if I ever had the means, I’d give back meaningfully. No one deserves to sleep on a sidewalk.”
Notably, almost identical wording was spotted in a May 23, 2025, blog post titled “NASCAR Sensation Kyle Busch Donates Entire $12.9 Million Bonus and Sponsorship Earnings to Homeless Shelter Initiative”:
In a stunning act of generosity that is sending shockwaves through both the sports and philanthropic worlds, NASCAR legend Kyle Busch has donated the entirety of his $12.9 million in season bonus earnings and sponsorship revenue to a nationwide homeless shelter initiative. The donation will fund the construction of 150 housing units and provide 300 shelter beds across several cities hardest hit by homelessness, in an effort to provide long-term, sustainable solutions for individuals and families experiencing housing instability.
Snopes has reached out to MSNBC for comment and we will update the story if we receive a response.
These stories very much resembled glurge, which Dictionary.com defines as “stories, often sent by email, that are supposed to be true and uplifting, but which are often fabricated and sentimental.”
For further reading, Snopes previously reported on a number of rumors about MSNBC host Rachel Maddow.
Sources:
Dictionary.com. “Glurge.” Dictionary.com, https://www.dictionary.com/browse/glurge. Accessed 11 Aug. 2025.
Huberman, Bond and David Emery. “Snopestionary: What Does ‘Glurge’ Mean?” Snopes, 21 Aug. 2021, https://www.snopes.com/articles/363643/what-does-glurge-mean/. Accessed 11 Aug. 2025.
Ibrahim, Nur. “9 Rachel Maddow rumors we’ve fact-checked.” Snopes, 22 July 2025, https://www.snopes.com/collections/maddow-rumors-collection/. Accessed 11 Aug. 2025.
