Did an Oprah Winfrey charity called "Coats for Kids" take in over $140 million while only purchasing "310 jackets" as of December 2024? No, that's not true: The information in this post initially appeared in an article on a self-described satirical website that includes the disclaimer, "Everything on this website is fiction." Even so, some social media users shared the information as genuine.
The claim appeared in a video post (archived here) on TikTok on December 18, 2024. Above an image of Winfrey, white text against a black background read:
👇
Oprah's "Coats for Kids" Charity Took in $140 Million and Only Bought 310 Jackets
Slightly overlaid above the picture of Winfrey is black text against a white background that reads:
💥OPRAH MAUI..KIDS..JACKETS
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri Dec 27 17:03:29 2024 UTC)
Article originated on a self-described satire website
At the bottom left-hand corner of the image in the TikTok video is the logo for "America's Last Line of Defense" (ALLOD), a network of satirical sites that includes The Dunning-Kruger Times.
The assertion that Winfrey was affiliated with such an organization was first made in an article (archived here) by The Dunning-Kruger Times titled, "Oprah's 'Coats for Kids' Charity Bought Just Over 300 Coats for $140 million." This self-described satire website includes a disclaimer reading, "Everything on this website is fiction."
The website is named after the Dunning-Kruger effect, a term from a psychology experiment that describes being ignorant of one's ignorance. (A math professor has disputed that experiment.) Self-described liberal troll Christopher Blair runs the website.
Below is how that article appeared at the time of this writing:
(Source: The Dunning-Kruger Times screenshot taken on Mon Dec 30 12:45:29 2024 UTC)
No record of 'Coats for Kids' charity affiliated with the Oprah Winfrey Charitable Foundation
The most recently (and publicly) available financial records affiliated with the Oprah Winfrey Charitable Foundation (OWCF), a charity founded by Winfrey, do not align with the amounts purported in the post as of the 2023 fiscal year.
Lead Stories reviewed the OWCF 2023 990-PF filing, a full text of which can be viewed here. The filing was also published by the investigative journalism organization ProPublica, which reported that the Oprah Winfrey Foundation brought in a revenue of $4.55 million and charitably disbursed almost $40 million in the 2023 fiscal year.
While OCFW supports many organizations globally, a charity named "Coats for Kids" is not listed on the foundation's website (archived here).
Lead Stories reached out to Winfrey's representatives and will update this fact check if a response is received.
ALLOD & The Dunning-Kruger Times
The Dunning-Kruger Times is part of the ALLOD network of satire websites run by self-professed liberal troll Blair from Maine, along with a loose confederation of friends and allies. He runs several websites and Facebook pages with visible satire disclaimers.
Sites in the network have an "About" page that reads, in part:
About Satire
Before you complain and decide satire is synonymous with "comedy":
sat·ire ˈsaˌtī(ə)r noun: The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined. Any similarities between this site's pure fantasy and actual people, places, and events are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and satirical. See above if you're still having an issue with that satire thing.
Articles from Blair's sites frequently get copied by "real" fake news sites that omit the satire disclaimer and other indications showing that the stories are fake.
The Dunning-Kruger Times website also contains an "About Us" (archived here) page that has the following disclaimer:
About Us
Dunning-Kruger-Times.com is a subsidiary of the 'America's Last Line of Defense' network of parody, satire, and tomfoolery, or as Snopes called it before they lost their war on satire: Junk News
At the time this was written, Snopes, Reuters, and Yahoo News had reviewed the same claim.
Read more
Lead Stories has looked into other claims involving Oprah Winfrey, which can be read here.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks surrounding ALLOD and its network can be viewed here.
