Economics: Philanthropics: American pledges to charity exceed all US records, says FT's Rebecca Knight, Boston
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The excellent Financial Times features an accounting report by Rebbeca Knight in Boston, "Charity pledges smash all US records" (Jan1,2k7). The piece is interestingly one-dimensional, but the demographical/sociological "implications" as to the societal-sphere-specific distribution of the sum total of the targets and of the sources of record-h+ pledges of dollar-gifts across the country, remains. The story-teller in most each of us begins to engage in "wondering-whether," a proces that inherently arises thru imagination in many of us (but not all, there are different styles of learning with different paces) when contemplating the pertinent facts.
Warren Buffett’s historic $31bn (€23.5bn) donation to the Gates Foundation made 2006 a banner year for US charitable giving, smashing previous records by a huge margin.Morals, moralities, mores, manners
According to figures from the Chronicle of Philanthropy, the top 15 charitable gifts and pledges in the US weighed in at $35bn. By contrast, the largest 15 gifts of 2005 and 2004 totalled $2bn and $4.4bn respectively, according to the Chronicle, which has compiled an annual list of the largest announced gifts and pledges by individuals since 1997.
Mr Buffett accounted for the overwhelming bulk of that sum with his $31bn pledge to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Mr Buffett’s gift – which will help the foundation pursue its goal of curing the world’s 20 leading fatal diseases – is the biggest charitable donation in history.
But even without Mr Buffett’s largesse, it was an exceptional year for philanthropy with a record number of gifts of more than $100m. This year there were 14 gifts of $100m or more. In 1998 – the year that came closest to that number – there were 12, and last year, 10 donations of that size were made. “It’s not just the Bill Gates and the Warren Buffetts of the world who are giving; it’s a lot of different people,” said Stacy Palmer, Chronicle editor.
People who made money in real estate and financial services dominate this year’s list. The second and third largest gifts were by donors who profited from the sale of Golden West Financial Corporation to the Wachovia Corporation.Among the several other key dimensions are those suggested by the following categorics: ethics economics philanthropics philanthropyaccounting accounting charity dollargifts foundations capitalization fund-raisers institutionsphilanthropy USAphilanthropy ....
Herbert and Marion Sandler, co-chief executive officers of Golden West Financial Corporation, gave $1.3bn to their family foundation, which supports basic science research at the University of San Francisco. Bernard Osher, co-founder of Golden West Financial Corporation, gave $723.2m to his eponymous foundation that awards scholarships and grants to students in California’s San Francisco and Alameda Counties and the State of Maine.
Fourth on the list was Jim Joseph, a California real estate developer, who left a $500m bequest to his foundation that provides educational programmes for Jewish youth; and fifth was David Rockefeller, retired chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, who gave $225m to the foundation he and his brothers formed.
Nine of the biggest gifts this year went to foundations.
Four of the largest went to universities. Philip Knight, chairman of Nike, pledged $105m to his alma mater, Stanford University Graduate School of Business, for a new management centre campus and Ronald Stanton, chairman of Transammonia, pledged $100m to Yeshiva University in New York.
FT.com/FinancialTimes Copyright
Update:theodp writes "Justice Eta, a Nigerian infant, has an ink spot on his tiny thumb to show he was immunized against polio and measles thanks to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. But Justice still faces respiratory trouble, which locals call 'the cough' and blame on fumes and soot spewing from 300-foot flames at a nearby oil plant owned by Itallian energy giant Eni, whose investors include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Part one of an L.A. Times investigation reports that the world's largest philanthropy pours money into investments that are hurting many of the people its grants aim to help. With the exception of tobacco companies, Mu
By way of update Jan5,2k7, the follpowing info comes from Roger Friedman's 411 email newsletter on the entertainment industry and its stars: Oprah's Charities Now Worth More Than $200 Million / AP Oprah Winfrey opens Leadership Academy in South Africa.Personal charity has always had personal tics and twists.
With all the talk about the opening of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa this week, it’s kind of amazing to realize what her charities are now worth. It’s an astounding amount of money, with some interesting trivia, too.
According to GuideStar.org and federal tax filings, Winfrey runs three different charities: The Oprah Winfrey Foundation, Oprah Winfrey’s Angel Network and The Oprah Winfrey Operating Foundation.
The Angel Network, of course, is heavily promoted on Winfrey’s show for fans to help raise money for worthy causes.
In 2005, the Angel Network distributed more than $4 million to 40 organizations with a lot of emphasis on Africa, Winfrey’s chief interest.
They also sent $2 million to disaster relief for victims of Hurricane Katrina and the Indian Ocean tsunami. The Angel Network claimed $15 million in net assets in 2004-2005.
Oprah’s Operating Foundation, with $19 million in assets, is set up just for the recently opened Leadership Academy in South Africa.
But the real meat and potatoes of Oprah’s giving comes from her personal foundation. According to its most recent filing, the Oprah Winfrey Foundation has total assets of a whopping $172 million. Just last year, Winfrey parked some $36 million of her own money in the Foundation, which in turn distributed $8 million to numerous educational, arts and medical groups.
Some of them, like something called the U.S. Dream Academy, depends on Winfrey almost entirely for their funding (she gave them $1 million last year).
Winfrey gives a lot to African causes and groups, but also gives millions domestically. Jackson (Miss.) State University is one of her largest recipients, as is Morehouse College.
And while most of Winfrey’s interests are to help African Americans, she has a soft spot for rich white kids, too.
Winfrey, according to her filing, is in the middle of doling out a $1 million contribution to the ultra-WASPy, very, very exclusive Miss Porter’s, the famed finishing school in Farmington, Conn. She sent her nieces there in the early '90s, and has remained a steadfast supporter.
The large donation seems a little unusual given that it would seem, from the school’s quarterly online newsletter “Salamagundy,” that the racial makeup of the academy hasn’t changed much since the days when Jackie Kennedy or George Bush 41’s mother, Dorothy, were students.
Other graduates of Miss Porter’s include Vanderbilts, Rockefellers and billionaire heiresses like Dina Merrill and the late Barbara Hutton. The school has an $80 million endowment.
Likewise, Winfrey is in the middle of giving a similar chunk of change to the very prestigious and exclusive Lake Forest Academy, on the tony north shore of Chicago.
The alumni section of Lake Forest’s Web site shows 99 percent Caucasians, with an occasional black student thrown in. Winfrey must have a plan for these two schools. It should be great when it’s revealed.
In a story posted on Johannesburg’s Business Day, though, writer Cara Bouwer reported on Wednesday that Winfrey actually modeled her Leadership School on Miss Porter’s. The difference, Bouwer observed, was that tuition for Miss Porter’s is $38,000. The Leadership Academy’s annual per student bill is $32,000 rand, or $4,500, all paid by Winfrey.
And no matter the Lake Forest or Miss Porter’s donations, the rest of the Oprah Winfrey Foundation is so solid that I’m surprised she hasn’t been knighted, or given the President Medal of Freedom.
When you compare her charitable activity to Donald Trump, of which I wrote about last week ($750,000 a year), or to the empty promises of “charity singles” that come from Michael Jackson, Winfrey’s work is unparalleled and unprecedented. She’s put about $5 million into a Boys and Girls club in her Mississippi hometown, for example, and last year another $500,000 went to the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation.
And for all our sakes, let’s hope Winfrey lives a long time. According to an amendment in her 2004 filing, Oprah is the sole member of the Foundation and is the only who has grant approval for those millions and millions of dollars.
But enjoy it while you can, charities, because a new line reads: “After the death of Oprah G. Winfrey, the Foundation shall have no members.”
--OwlbFurther Research:
CharityWatch by the American Institute for Philanthropy
American Philanthropic Values and the Future of Philanthropy [Ford Foundation]
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