SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — An award winning country music artist is in Sioux Falls today to help raise money for Call to Freedom.

It’s something Nashville-based artist Trey Taylor has made a priority in his tour schedule every year.

“I wanted to find a true intrinsic purpose for performing,” Taylor said.

Trey Taylor signed with a Nashville Record Label while he was still in high school, becoming the youngest African American in country music history.

“When I was 16 years old, the very first conversation I had with Dolly Parton she said, do not just tithe your money, tithe your time, find those things that you love and that you can contribute to,” Taylor said.

That’s exactly what brings Trey to Sioux Falls today, donating all of his time and talent to help raise money for a local grassroots nonprofit.

“We’re very honored with the fact that he could have chosen any of the great nonprofits all over the world, but he chose Call to Freedom here in Sioux Falls, SD to support,” Becky Rasmussen said.

Trey says he found Call to Freedom online and was initially drawn in by the organization’s name and found they have a shared passion for ending human trafficking.

He has this amazing gift of music and he’s taking that gift and he’s sewing it into the mission of Call to Freedom.

Trey tithes 10 percent of his tour every year, donating his time for about 15 out of his 150 shows a year to raise money for local nonprofits. In several years of touring, he’s raised nearly 1.5 million dollars for charities.

It became the most fulfilling thing in the world to me, past playing all the fun stages, all the fun cities when your talent is contributing to something past your bank account and your Instagram followers, that’s where it means something.

In seven years of touring, Trey has raised nearly 1.5 million dollars for charities, with tens of thousands more coming in tonight.