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Kelly McParland: Someone forgot to tell the .01% to be greedier
Kelly McParland | February 14, 2014 9:57 AM ET
It's not always about the megayacht
According to Wikipedia, The Chronicle of Philanthropy is “a biweekly newspaper that covers the nonprofit world.” Based in Washington, D.C., it “is aimed at charity leaders, foundation executives, fund raisers, and other people involved in philanthropy.”
The headline of its latest digital issue is: “Gifts Surge From Wealthiest U.S. Donors.”
It goes on to report:
America’s most generous donors are ditching the caution that marked so much of their giving as the economy stalled and are roaring back with a bevy of multimillion-dollar contributions to colleges, hospitals, and other causes.
The Chronicle’s ranking of the 50 donors who give the most to charitable causes shows that the wealthy contributed $7.7-billion last year. That’s 4 percent more than in 2012.
Top of the list is boy billionaire Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, who gave almost $1 billion worth of Facebook shares to a Silicon Valley non-profit, instantly making it one of the country’s biggest foundations. He was followed by a Texas oil tycoon, George Mitchell, who left $750 million to his family foundation, Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penelope, who gave $500-million, and Michael Bloomberg, who, according to the New York Times, donated at least $264 million to New York cultural charities during his years as mayor, and announced a plans to give away another $53 million shortly after stepping down this year.
OK, these folks are mega-rich, there are tax breaks in the U.S. that encourage charitable giving, and none of these people will starve even after making their donations. Still the extraordinary amounts regularly handed out by some of the world’s richest people conflicts somewhat with the popular wheeze of the 1% — or in this case the .001% — being greedy plutocrats who siphon off the world’s wealth for themselves while turning a blind eye to the less fortunate.
Mitchell, No. 2 on the list, could be the very personification of Big Oil: Born in Galveston, a wildcatter who built his private oil company into an industry giant, he’s considered a pioneer of fracking, the fracturing process that is much-hated by environmentalists who see it as Big Oil’s latest profit-driven insult to the world. So what did he leave his money to? According to Chronicle of Philanthropy, his foundation is devoted to ”conservation and sustainability: A key [is] to make sure the fracking technology he created doesn’t cause serious environmental damage.”
Knight’s money will go towards cancer, Bloomberg’s will “help replenish fish populations in Brazil, Chile, and the Philippines.” An additional $4.6 million is devoted to an organization that helps communities establish volunteer programs.
The list doesn’t include two of the U.S.’s two richest men, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, because they’re still paying off previous donations. Gates spends the bulk of his time on philanthropic activities these days, while Buffett has promised to give away his entire $60 billion fortune, largely to Mr. Gates’s charitable foundation. The foundation’s latest goal is the eradication of polio. Buffett and Gates are the main force behind the Giving Pledge, the campaign to convince billionaires to give away the bulk of their fortunes.
The chronically disgruntled will note that it’s easy to give away money when you have so much of it, that the world would be a better place if the money was more evenly divided in the first place, and that handing out a billion a year is nothing when you have multiple times that amount.
All of which may be true; but while Russian oligarchs and Saudi oil princes may devote their money to ever-bigger yachts and shinier palaces, there’s also a lot of giving going on to counter the getting.
National Post
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2014/02/14/kelly-mcparland-someone-forgot-to-tell-the-01-to-be-greedier/
Kelly McParland | February 14, 2014 9:57 AM ET
It's not always about the megayacht
According to Wikipedia, The Chronicle of Philanthropy is “a biweekly newspaper that covers the nonprofit world.” Based in Washington, D.C., it “is aimed at charity leaders, foundation executives, fund raisers, and other people involved in philanthropy.”
The headline of its latest digital issue is: “Gifts Surge From Wealthiest U.S. Donors.”
It goes on to report:
America’s most generous donors are ditching the caution that marked so much of their giving as the economy stalled and are roaring back with a bevy of multimillion-dollar contributions to colleges, hospitals, and other causes.
The Chronicle’s ranking of the 50 donors who give the most to charitable causes shows that the wealthy contributed $7.7-billion last year. That’s 4 percent more than in 2012.
Top of the list is boy billionaire Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, who gave almost $1 billion worth of Facebook shares to a Silicon Valley non-profit, instantly making it one of the country’s biggest foundations. He was followed by a Texas oil tycoon, George Mitchell, who left $750 million to his family foundation, Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penelope, who gave $500-million, and Michael Bloomberg, who, according to the New York Times, donated at least $264 million to New York cultural charities during his years as mayor, and announced a plans to give away another $53 million shortly after stepping down this year.
OK, these folks are mega-rich, there are tax breaks in the U.S. that encourage charitable giving, and none of these people will starve even after making their donations. Still the extraordinary amounts regularly handed out by some of the world’s richest people conflicts somewhat with the popular wheeze of the 1% — or in this case the .001% — being greedy plutocrats who siphon off the world’s wealth for themselves while turning a blind eye to the less fortunate.
Mitchell, No. 2 on the list, could be the very personification of Big Oil: Born in Galveston, a wildcatter who built his private oil company into an industry giant, he’s considered a pioneer of fracking, the fracturing process that is much-hated by environmentalists who see it as Big Oil’s latest profit-driven insult to the world. So what did he leave his money to? According to Chronicle of Philanthropy, his foundation is devoted to ”conservation and sustainability: A key [is] to make sure the fracking technology he created doesn’t cause serious environmental damage.”
Knight’s money will go towards cancer, Bloomberg’s will “help replenish fish populations in Brazil, Chile, and the Philippines.” An additional $4.6 million is devoted to an organization that helps communities establish volunteer programs.
The list doesn’t include two of the U.S.’s two richest men, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, because they’re still paying off previous donations. Gates spends the bulk of his time on philanthropic activities these days, while Buffett has promised to give away his entire $60 billion fortune, largely to Mr. Gates’s charitable foundation. The foundation’s latest goal is the eradication of polio. Buffett and Gates are the main force behind the Giving Pledge, the campaign to convince billionaires to give away the bulk of their fortunes.
The chronically disgruntled will note that it’s easy to give away money when you have so much of it, that the world would be a better place if the money was more evenly divided in the first place, and that handing out a billion a year is nothing when you have multiple times that amount.
All of which may be true; but while Russian oligarchs and Saudi oil princes may devote their money to ever-bigger yachts and shinier palaces, there’s also a lot of giving going on to counter the getting.
National Post
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2014/02/14/kelly-mcparland-someone-forgot-to-tell-the-01-to-be-greedier/
