I Acknowledge Beauty Exists, Icarus Verum, 26 Aug 2013
“People
used to ask me how I got my jollies, and I guess I’m happy when what I’m doing
is helping people and unhappy when what I’m doing isn’t helping people.”
~Chuck
Feeney, (former) billionaire
Chuck
Feeney is an 82 year old Irish man who has made over $7.5 billion in his
lifetime which he made by “hawking cognac, perfume and cigarettes in his empire
of duty-free shops.” In 1984 Feeney
transferred the entire 38.75% of his ownership stake in his company, Duty Free
Shoppers, to his Atlantic Philanthropies; he kept $2 million worth of assets
for himself. Most interestingly – he
worked hard to keep his philanthropic efforts highly secretive; he either made
anonymous donations or forced organizations not to disclose him as the donor. He was quite successful at evading notoriety
for decades.
“I want the
last check I write to bounce.”
Over the
years – as a board member for DFS – he pushed to ensure the business was more
profitable even though that money only generated money for his charitable
foundation. $6.2 of the $7.5 billion has
already been given to various organizations with a focus on education and
research; the remaining $1.3 billion is slated to be given out by 2016. Chuck Feeney is the guy who Bill Gates says
inspired him to give away the majority of his fortune using the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation; many other billionaires like Warren Buffett have
followed suit.. Forbes did a great
profile of him HERE. The NY Times has a
nice recap on him HERE.
“I’m a
competitive type of person whether it’s playing a game of basketball or playing
business games. I don’t dislike money,
but there’s only so much money you can use.”
He donated
almost $1 billion to Cornell University over the years; he graduated there in
1956 (source). He has donated $1.5
billion to Irish education and hundreds of millions to Irish charities
(source). He gave $10 million to fund
HIV research (source).
The Daily
Mail gives some other breakdowns of his charities HERE:
Operation
Smile, a project to treat children born with cleft palates, has had $19.5
million from Atlantic, while cancer projects have had $370 million.
AIDS
research in South Africa has had $117 million in investments from the
foundation.
He has
given $28 million to support the abolition of the death penalty in the United
States and has campaigned for eight million children in the country without
health insurance to be covered.
This guy is
my hero and is a reminder of the greatness that really exists in all of
us. Someone called him “An
Impossible-to-Live-up-to Hero”; I’d say that’ about right.
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