4 ms·

The view of this writer brings up something that sickens me about philanthropy and that's doing it just to get the recognition and attention of rather than givi

The view of this writer brings up something that sickens me about philanthropy and that's doing it just to get the recognition and attention of rather than giving because you actually want to help someone.

zkz 17y ago
I'm not sure if that's what you mean, but if you think BG would give most of his fortune just to get recognition and attention... I think that's really unfair with him.
- travisjeffery 17y ago
  I'm speaking in general.
kevbin 17y ago
Gates' early philanthropic donations were primarily to higher-ed institutions. Somewhere along the line he learned that that's among the most regressive, least effective forms of charity, and shifted his focus to the truly poor and needy. That convinced me that he was truly interested in helping others and not just looking for recognition, attention, or improving the MS brand.
- rbanffy 17y ago
  "improving the MS brand." Keep in mind he also has some investments in biotech too. Giving someone money in order to allow him to buy your products and prop up your market cap may be a very profitable form of charity ;-)
  - rbanffy 17y ago
    Voted down as what? "inconvenient"?
pg 17y ago
What evidence do you have about how common this is?
- travisjeffery 17y ago
  Well, most recently and evidently I went out with a girl who helped start a humanitarian organization and in doing so I obtained quite a bit of experience watching and interacting with her and her friends. Other than that in general, I've observed many occasions where if given the choice between giving or not, the major factor in their decision was whether or not other people would know about it.
gizmo 17y ago
What sickens me is that it's also the other way around. If you are a billionaire and give money away in private, you'll be publicly criticized for not giving anything to charities. You're guilty unless proven innocent, so to speak. Or take somebody like Warren Buffet. For years people had criticized him for ignoring charities, while he was of the opinion that he could put the money to better use by investing it wisely. A few years back he decided to join forces with Gates and signed almost all of his money away to charity. And suddenly, of course, the media flips and applauds his generosity. The strategy of keeping all the money during your career and giving it away in a lump sum in the end may be a close to optimal solution (because you give away everything you're going to think very carefully about how to make the biggest impact. Otherwise you'll pick a few charities at the end of every year for PR reasons and for tax benefits; that's not going to be optimal.) To criticize a billionaire when he wastes obscene amounts of money (yachts/private planes) I can understand (although I think they earned those luxuries). To criticize people for investing the money they've made, when there's no reason to assume they're not going to give the same money to charity in the future, well, that's just petty.
thismat 17y ago
This is silly, all it's saying is that if you're humble enough to donate anon, you're going to be vilified. I'm unbiased as far as windows/mac goes, Jobs does seem very orientated to his visions only, but I refuse to believe Jobs doesn't donate to charities, and I have no information to say he does or doesn't. My grandmother loved to donate as anon0 to people, sending large lump sums to people in need, directly in the form of cash in their mailbox or otherwise delivered as a "gift" with no "from". I hold humble charity in the highest regard, and whenever I donate, I refuse to put my name to it to this day, as a gift given for recognition feels cheapened. we didn't find out until after her death, my mother was normally her assistant in sending and getting it to the right places and she didn't disclose any of this until after her passing, in memory of her and to honor her.

zkz 17y ago

I'm not sure if that's what you mean, but if you think BG would give most of his fortune just to get recognition and attention... I think that's really unfair with him.

travisjeffery 17y ago
I'm speaking in general.

kevbin 17y ago

Gates' early philanthropic donations were primarily to higher-ed institutions. Somewhere along the line he learned that that's among the most regressive, least effective forms of charity, and shifted his focus to the truly poor and needy. That convinced me that he was truly interested in helping others and not just looking for recognition, attention, or improving the MS brand.

rbanffy 17y ago
"improving the MS brand." Keep in mind he also has some investments in biotech too. Giving someone money in order to allow him to buy your products and prop up your market cap may be a very profitable form of charity ;-)
- rbanffy 17y ago
  Voted down as what? "inconvenient"?

pg 17y ago

What evidence do you have about how common this is?

travisjeffery 17y ago
Well, most recently and evidently I went out with a girl who helped start a humanitarian organization and in doing so I obtained quite a bit of experience watching and interacting with her and her friends. Other than that in general, I've observed many occasions where if given the choice between giving or not, the major factor in their decision was whether or not other people would know about it.

gizmo 17y ago

What sickens me is that it's also the other way around. If you are a billionaire and give money away in private, you'll be publicly criticized for not giving anything to charities. You're guilty unless proven innocent, so to speak. Or take somebody like Warren Buffet. For years people had criticized him for ignoring charities, while he was of the opinion that he could put the money to better use by investing it wisely. A few years back he decided to join forces with Gates and signed almost all of his money away to charity. And suddenly, of course, the media flips and applauds his generosity. The strategy of keeping all the money during your career and giving it away in a lump sum in the end may be a close to optimal solution (because you give away everything you're going to think very carefully about how to make the biggest impact. Otherwise you'll pick a few charities at the end of every year for PR reasons and for tax benefits; that's not going to be optimal.) To criticize a billionaire when he wastes obscene amounts of money (yachts/private planes) I can understand (although I think they earned those luxuries). To criticize people for investing the money they've made, when there's no reason to assume they're not going to give the same money to charity in the future, well, that's just petty.

thismat 17y ago

This is silly, all it's saying is that if you're humble enough to donate anon, you're going to be vilified. I'm unbiased as far as windows/mac goes, Jobs does seem very orientated to his visions only, but I refuse to believe Jobs doesn't donate to charities, and I have no information to say he does or doesn't. My grandmother loved to donate as anon0 to people, sending large lump sums to people in need, directly in the form of cash in their mailbox or otherwise delivered as a "gift" with no "from". I hold humble charity in the highest regard, and whenever I donate, I refuse to put my name to it to this day, as a gift given for recognition feels cheapened. we didn't find out until after her death, my mother was normally her assistant in sending and getting it to the right places and she didn't disclose any of this until after her passing, in memory of her and to honor her.