A Smith’s woman has donated a total of $30,000 to various charities and to the performing arts as a way to give back to her community.

To celebrate her 30th birthday, actress Nishanti Bailey decided to hold a play. The proceeds of her production Chain were then donated to charities and the arts.

“I was just going through a reflective period, I felt blessed and realised that I had most of what I had because of the community and I wanted to give back,” said Ms Bailey.

“The community knows me as an actress so I wanted to put on a show.”

Ms Bailey gave three $3,000 donations to the Parent Resource Institute for Drug Education (PRIDE), but she felt she could do more.

“Instead of just giving PRIDE some money, I thought why don’t I try to give back the money to multiple charities?”

She went on to give 30 more charities $300 each.

Ms Bailey and her brother Nadanja Bailey set up the ‘The Nadanja & Nishanthi N’tertainment Scholarship’ to give support to performing arts students.

“There was an audition process where we witnessed their passion for the arts,” she explained.

“They had to already be involved with the arts.

“For the first year we wanted it to be students who we were familiar with so that we knew they were passionate.”

The chosen students were Shawn Herman, Dawnita Smith and Marcus Smith. They each received a $3,000 scholarship. A further $3,000 was donated to the Coalition of Drama Educators.

Ms Bailey raised over $25,000 from her show, crowd-funding on Indiegogo and an open bank account. The remaining $5,000 of her $30,000 donations came from her own savings.