Monday, January 4, 2016
Financial Times Cites Atlantic Philanthropies, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisers in 'How to Give Away $1 Billion'
Mark Zuckerberg’s letter to his new daughter Max, in which he promises to dedicate his fortune to philanthropy, was addressed to one person, and read and discussed by millions — but 1,825 people will have paid special attention. These are the other members of the elite club of the world’s billionaires according to the latest annual count by Forbes magazine, with an aggregate wealth of $7tn.
Mr Zuckerberg’s peers have most likely already turned their mind to philanthropy. If they are among the 230 who inherited their $1bn, they may have been giving their whole lives; if they made their money more recently in industrialising China or by siring a unicorn in Silicon Valley, they have no doubt been seized by the opportunity to aid those less fortunate and to leave the world a better place. In either case, they are engaging in philanthropic endeavour at an intriguing time, as old ways of giving are being challenged and even the definition of what it means to be a philanthropist appears to be expanding. . .
It is much more fun to give while you live than to give while you are dead, Chuck Feeney is fond of saying.
The Irish-American businessman, 84, who founded the Duty Free Shoppers retail chain in 1960, is the modern exemplar of the “giving while living” movement, which argues the wealthy should begin their philanthropy early — and finish it early, too. The movement is a challenge to the traditional model of US philanthropy, under which the foundations created by John D Rockefeller, Henry Ford and Andrew Mellon are still among the largest charities in the country almost seven decades after the last of the founders died, spending only the income from their endowments.
Mr Feeney’s Atlantic Philanthropies, to which he granted his ownership stake in DFS back in 1984, was given a fixed end-date of 2020. . .