A relief foundation may not be the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks Linkin Park. Linkin Park’s foundation, Music For Relief, started back in 2004 after the tsunami in the Indian Ocean destroyed Indonesia, Thailand, and Sumatra.

Linkin Park had just finished touring in Southeast Asia and within days of returning to the States, the tsunami hit. The band felt like they needed to do something after having visited the area. Linkin Park put a lot of money together and within 24 hours, they created “Music For Relief”.

“I think it was like 2:00 in the morning or something like that, we all decided to do something. We got on the phone the next day together as a group with our partners in business and we formed Music For Relief and we responded,” said lead singer, Chester Bennington.

Music For Relief was the first music industry based relief organization in the world that responded to the crisis. This prompted the boys to help with other natural disasters across the world. Bennington said that 100 percent of the proceeds was going to the different causes and not being put in a trust for a board to decide which disaster was more important.

Linkin Park encouraged and urged other artists to get involved and make the foundation a music community project. As of late, the band has been working with the UN with initiatives such as Power The World.

For more information on Music For Relief, please visit musicforrelief.org.