At Miami Beach Art Basel, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jared Leto, and More Helped Raise Over $1 Million at Sean Penn’s CORE Fundraiser 

MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA - NOVEMBER 30: Jared Leto attends the CORE Miami: A Special Evening To Benefit CORE's Vital Disaster Relief Efforts at Soho Beach House on November 30, 2022 in Miami Beach, Florida. (Photo by Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images for CORE)Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images

For the third year in a row, Sean Penn’s CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort) fundraising benefit found a home smack-dab in the middle of Miami Beach Art Basel. If the week can be summed up as a dizzying whirlwind of mega yacht parties, heavily branded fashion events, multi-million dollar private art sales, and overall sky-high excess, CORE’s event is one that helps ground it all. 

“I am teeming with pride and gratitude with my friends and families coming together tonight,” said CORE CEO Ann Lee, reading off a message from founder Sean Penn, who couldn’t be at the gathering on Wednesday night. Since establishing CORE in 2010, after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Penn and Lee have made it their mission to respond quickly and effectively to communities in need. “I’ve seen a lot of good and bad in the world,” the actor’s statement continued. “However, there’s nothing I have found worse than apathy in the face of all the increased disasters and war.” 

“Miami is my second home… but my roots are in Haiti,” said actress Garcelle Beauvais. “When it was hit by the catastrophic earthquake in 2010, the devastation was immense. It felt almost insurmountable. Lots of people were talking about how they can help Haiti, but then a group and a man showed up. That group was CORE and that man was Sean Penn.” 

Beauvais spoke to a star-studded audience seated beneath a tent on the sand at Soho Beach House. Among the generous partygoers were Leonardo DiCaprio, Jared Leto, Vivi Nevo, Tobey Maguire, Diplo, Soleil Moon Frye, Alan Faena, Rande Gerber, Karolina Kurkova, Ariana Rockefeller Dorothy Wang, Tina Leung, Sutton Stracke, and more. 

Guests arrived at a cocktail reception on the beach; the sounds of waves crashing gave way to a DJ set from Mia Moretti. The program that followed was swift and to the point: Generators cost $50,000 each and, as Lydia Fenet of Christie’s explained to the crowd, Ukraine was in desperate need of them as winter approached and Russia’s invasion continued. Who would raise a paddle for donations going directly to that effort? Many in the room needed no convincing. 

There was also a live auction that included a trip to Rio de Janeiro for a private concert with Anitta during Carnival; a signed guitar from Wyclef Jean (who would close out the night with a concert on the beach); and a painting by Miamian artist and filmmaker Harmony Korine, donated by DiCaprio himself. By the end of the evening, the benefit had raised more than $1 million—meaning guests could head home from Art Basel knowing that they had made an impact.