Known for pushing boundaries with regards to the lyrical content of her music, Madonna is now intent on pushing boundaries with regards to philanthropy.

As part of her plans to mark her 60^th birthday which will fall on 16^th August, Madonna is partnering with Ripple in a month-long initiative to raise funds aimed at assisting orphans in Malawi through Raising Malawi, a charity the Queen of Pop founded more than a decade ago.

During the fundraising period that started from July 30 and which will run until August 31, Ripple has committed to matching all the public donations that will be made in support of Madonna’s cause.

According to Madonna, the donations will specifically benefit the work of the nonprofit at the Home of Hope orphanage in Malawi. At the time of writing US$28,783 had been raised via Madonna’s Facebook page.

Hundreds of Thousands of Orphans to Benefit

In a statement released by Ripple, the firm noted that Malawi has close to one million children who have been orphaned after their parents died from HIV/AIDS-related complications.

“We’re honored to be a part of Raising Malawi’s amazing work with some of the world’s most underserved children,” Ripple’s senior vice president of business operations, Eric van Miltenburg, said.

Ripple’s statement did not, however, indicate whether the donations would be matched in XRP or USD.

According to Miltenburg, Ripple was introduced to Raising Malawi by its investors at Sound Ventures, a tech investment fund founded by Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary six years ago.

Saving Endangered Species From Extinction

In May this year, as CCN reported, Kutcher partnered with Ripple to donate US$4 million in XRP to the Ellen DeGeneres Wildlife Fund, a nonprofit started by comedian and daytime talk show host, Ellen DeGeneres, with a view of supporting global conservation efforts for species that are critically endangered.

Earlier this year, Ripple and its executives donated XRP worth approximately US$29 million to support public schools in the United States via the DonorsChoose.org nonprofit. As the nonprofit noted, the Ripple donation was the biggest that DonorsChoose had ever received after being in existence for close to two decades.

The donation by Ripple and its executives fulfilled requests that teachers from over 28,000 public schools had made thus giving the educators and their students access to school supplies books, field trips, technology as well as other resources required for learning.

“We are awestruck by the generosity of the Ripple team,” the founder of DonorsChoose, Charles Best, said in a statement. “Their gift will provide learning materials and experiences to more than a million students, overwhelmingly in low-income communities.”