In June 2013, Donahue and numerous other celebrities appeared in a video showing support for Chelsea Manning. Also in 2013, he was interviewed for the film "Finding Vivian Maier", as he once hired the photographer Vivian Maier to nanny his children. On May 24 and May 25, 2016, Donahue spoke at Ralph Nader's Breaking Through Power conference at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. In 2014, his youngest son James Donahue died suddenly from an aortic aneurysm at age 51. The same year Donahue ceased posting on Twitter.