Tom Scholz founded the DTS Charitable Foundation in 1987. He utilized this formal 501c3 registered charity to donate a major portion of his personal earnings from the music business for the promotion of the vegetarian lifestyle, and prevention of cruelty and suffering to animals both nonhuman and human. 

This humane concern grew out of Mr. Scholz's own adoption of vegetarianism in late 1979, and his resulting discoveries of the realities of the treatment of animals used for food and products by American businessmen. His interest in this closely parallels Brad Delp's commitment to ethical vegetarianism and anti cruelty, which began in the mid 1970's.

Tom Scholz's initial donations, which exceeded one million dollars in the first two years, were directed exclusively to national large scale organizations promoting anti-cruelty and vegetarianism such as The Humane Farming Association and PeTA. Soon after, local and grass roots organizations as well as international organizations were included. To date, over 40 organizations have received donations totaling well over 3 million dollars.

For his charitable work, founder Tom Scholz has received awards from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Friends of Animals, The National Hospice Organization, the Action for Life Conference (Mahatma Gandhi Award), The Ark Trust, and most recently the Animal Rights 2007 Conference.

Because most administrative functions are either paid for directly by Tom Scholz or volunteered, the foundation has an exceptional record of nearly 100% of assets being used to fund programs. Because the foundation does not solicit funds from the public, there are no fundraising costs.

The foundation urges anyone interested in these goals to donate directly to the organizations themselves, rather than donate to the DTS Charitable Foundation. By visiting the websites listed we feel that potential contributors will learn more about what these organizations are doing and why these problems deserve attention, also helping people to become informed and involved on more than just a financial level. For those who are unable to do this but still want to help, we will accept donations and continue to do the best we can to use it effectively.

All organizations receiving grants from the foundation are well established, registered 501c3 charities; disbursements are not made to individuals or unregistered groups, and organizations considered for larger grants are scrutinized for their recent history of program expenditures, their performance ratio of program expenditures to administrative expenses (efficiency), the reputations of their executive personnel, and their proposed use of the funds to be received from the foundation.

A few noteworthy funding efforts by the foundation have included:

• Sponsoring a full page ad in the New York Times for the Earth Island Institute leading to eventual agreement by major tuna canners to stop selling tuna caught in dolphin ensnaring nets (resulting in the now familiar dolphin-safe tuna label).
• Funding Humane Farming's public awareness campaign against veal calves being chained in small crates for the entire two months of their lives before being killed and sold as "milk fed" veal, resulting in a dramatic reduction in the number of calves receiving this torturous treatment.
• Continued financial support of PeTA's anti-fur, vegetarian promotion, and cosmetics anti-animal testing campaigns, which have resulted in dramatic reduction in animals skinned for their fur, numerous well known products now produced cruelty free and labeled, and a steady yearly increase of cruelty aware people who have become vegetarian.
• Funding GREY 2K USA's public awareness campaigns which have helped to end dog racing and the associated mistreatment of the animals in numerous places around the country.

Please note the organizations mentioned represent only a glimpse of the enormous effort being mounted by dozens of dedicated organizations in these areas, all of which have had an impact in making these successes possible. 

All of these dedicated hardworking people need your help, they work on a relative shoestring, while competing against the corporate and governmental giants of the world, who have unlimited resources to mount misleading promotional campaigns to further their interests.