Toxic Charity by Lupton Robert D

Author:Lupton, Robert D. [Lupton, Robert D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Itzy, Kickass.to
ISBN: 9780062076229
Amazon: B004X2JGSI
Publisher: HarperOne
Published: 2011-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Wise Giving

IT MADE HUGE HEADLINES WHEN two of the world’s richest people announced they were giving away their billions. Like the Rockefellers and Carnegies of an earlier generation, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates have made a joint commitment to give away the lion’s share of their vast wealth to take on global challenges of gigantic proportions—like ending nuclear proliferation and curing AIDS. And they are inviting other members of this elite billionaires club to join them. Philanthropy at the rarefied levels of society is gaining in popularity. We can learn from how they are going about giving away their money. In this chapter we will meet some who are leaders in thinking through their giving strategies.

In a recent highly exclusive gathering of the world’s wealthiest businesspeople, Buffett and Gates explained their rationale for giving back. They and their families had all that they would ever need, and so they concluded that the surplus should be reinvested to make the world a better place for humanity. When they opened the floor for discussion, two questions immediately surfaced: how do you give wisely, and how much should you give to your children?

“It’s much easier to make [money] than it is to give it away intelligently (emphasis mine),” Buffett admitted in an interview with Christiane Amanpour on ABC News. Anyone can give money away indiscriminately. Successful entrepreneurs, however, are concerned with return on investment. They want to see measurable impact and lasting results. They are willing to take risks—risk-reward ratios are their stock-in-trade. But softhearted charity that doesn’t offer permanent solutions lacks appeal for them. They want to eradicate a disease, save a failing educational system, find a new ecofriendly energy source.

Buffett was joined by Bill and Melinda Gates on the CNN show, where they offered their personal philosophies on responsible giving:

• R&D is vital.

• Invest in success: sound business principles also are good principles for responsible charitable investing.

• Focus on your passions.

• Investigate the best practices of those in the field to determine what works.

• Create a prototype to test new approaches.

• Record the process.

• Document the findings.

• Tweak the methods.

• Replicate successes.

If this new generation of philanthropists is to be as successful in their charitable endeavors as in their business careers, they will apply these same standards of due diligence.

Melinda Gates has a passion to fix the failing public education system in the United States, a system that has dropped from first to twelfth among industrialized nations in preparing college-ready graduates. She and her team have invested significant amounts of time, energy, and resources analyzing the problem. They have spent countless hours listening to students, parents, educators, and administrators; researching instructional methods, incentives, and organizational models; scrutinizing demographic influences; and studying models with promise.

In measured ways the Gates are funding innovative projects aimed at finding the most effective ways to enhance educational quality. In one school in Appalachia, for example, they have funded the installation of video cameras in classrooms so that teachers can study the full scope of activity within their learning environments and critique their own classroom management.

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