Your Email:
Your Name:
To:
Subject:
Message: Someone thought you might be interested in this entry at Exquisite Safaris. http://www.exquisitesafaris.com/index.php/journal/more/giving_while_living/ Giving While Living -Well: Philanthropic Travel Got Heart? World travelers might well be familiar with the company Duty Free Shoppers (DFS), but few would have heard of the man who founded the empire and then one day literally gave it all away. That's exactly what Irish-American Chuck Feeney did in the 1980s. For years he was listed in international business magazines as one of the richest men alive, but few knew that the reclusive entrepreneur, inspired by men like Andrew Carnegie, chose to give his wealth away, including to Australian institutions in Brisbane and Melbourne. Now, at the age of 76, Mr Feeney has decided to go public with his mission in the hope that others on the rich list will follow his example of giving while living. Dublin-based author Conor O'Clery gained exclusive access to Mr Feeney over more than a decade. His book, The Billionaire Who Wasn't, is due to be published next month. He says one day Mr Feeney decided to give it all away. "One day in 1984, he signed everything away, and everything at this stage included his share in the duty-free empire, and also a vast empire of businesses that he had built up through the dividends he got from the duty-free business," he said. Mr O'Clery says so far Mr Feeney has given away $US4 billion ($4.85 billion). "He has still $US4 billion left, and he has determined that he should spend all this in the next 10 years and wind down his philanthropy," he said. "He takes the attitude that it's better to give money now to worthy causes and let future generations of rich people look after future people. "What he said to me once was, 'If I have $10 now and I give it to somebody, that somebody is going to be able to benefit from that, but if I give them five cents a year for hundreds of years, they don't get the same benefit.'" Good Causes Mr O'Clery says Mr Feeney's philanthropy is far greater than that of most other entrepreneurs. "Chuck Feeney's giving is incomparable in American terms, in that he has given all his wealth away and devoted himself to making sure it goes to good causes," he said. "What Chuck Feeney has done is an example to the new rich in countries like Australia, South Africa, Ireland, as to what one can do with the good that one can do with great wealth." He says Mr Feeney is rare because he has given away so much and done so anonymously. "Bill Gates is still a very wealthy man even though he has the biggest foundation in the world now," he said. "Warren Buffet, who has put in something like over $US30 billion into the Bill Gates Foundation, is also still a very wealthy man. But Warren Buffet hasn't done anything really other than write a cheque. "Chuck Feeney has spent the last 25 years going around the world, finding good causes for his money." "You won't find a building anywhere in the world with his name on it, because he's insisted on strict anonymity - so strict that if anybody who figures out the money's coming from him, and they aren't told initially, makes that public, funding will stop. "He's a person totally without ego, and that's very rare, and not just among wealthy people but among philanthropists." Giving in Australia Mr O'Clery says Mr Feeney's Australian connection came about through his friendship with former tennis great Ken Fletcher. "He likes sporting icons, and when he went to Australia he had just sold his shares and his duty-free empire and had got an injection of $US1.6 billion in cash," he said. "So he was looking around for some way of investing this in some other part of the world. "He had already invested huge amounts in American universities, and in good causes in the United States. He had already transformed Irish universities. He had funded Oxford and Cambridge. He had begun to work in Vietnam. "So he saw an opportunity in Australia when he went with Ken Fletcher to Brisbane, and he got Jim Soorley, the [then] mayor of Brisbane, to set up a meeting with a couple of leading academics, discovered that the universities in Australia also needed funding, that they were struggling because they were relying on government intervention, and there was no culture of philanthropy in Australia that was really making any big difference. "So he soon got involved in helping universities not just in Queensland but in other parts of Australia, particularly Melbourne. And to date, I understand he's given $350 million to philanthropic causes in Australia, mostly to universities." Mr O'Clery says Mr Feeney gave Australia more than the late Kerry Packer did. "Kerry Packer I think fits into the tradition of people who make a lot of money and don't turn to philanthropy," he said. "Kerry Packer, as far as I know, did not have a philanthropic foundation when he died, and he was Australia's richest man by far. "Chuck Feeney... would like to say to Australian wealthy people, and to wealthy people in other parts of the world, you should think about philanthropy because it's a lot of fun and you get a lot of pleasure out of it and you feel good. "Chuck Feeney is determined to wind down his foundation and give away the remaining $US4 billion in the next 10 years." Unusual Billionaire Mr O'Clery says the billionaire wouldn't strike you as one if you saw him in the street. "If you saw him in the street he'd probably be wearing a worn raincoat, and he'd be picking up bits of rubbish and putting it in rubbish bins. He's not eccentric, but he's got certain rules that he lives by," he said. "He sits at the back of the plane. I've flown with him, and I'd be sitting in seat 33B and he'd be in seat 49C, beside the toilets. "He doesn't have a house, he doesn't have a car, he lives in small apartments that are rented by his philanthropy. "He's like an Australian bowerbird. He collects articles and magazines all the time, and if he wants to tell you what's on his mind, he will give you a cutting from a newspaper. "He says, 'If ever you see a magazine with a page torn out, it means I've been reading it.'" ~~~~~ Dublin-based journalist O'Clery presents an archetypal American success story, a rags-to-riches account with a twist. Few people had heard of Charles Francis Feeney in 1988 when Forbes outed him as immensely wealthy. He was, the magazine reported, richer than Mr. Murdoch or The Donald, richer than David Rockefeller. But O'Clery reveals that Chuck Feeney was personally worth merely a few million -Feeney had managed, through his French wife, to transfer, in strict secrecy, his considerable wealth to offshore charitable foundations. Born during the Depression, Feeney was an Irish-American kid from New Jersey, educated at Cornell on the GI Bill. A natural, bright entrepreneur, he devised ways of selling liquor and gray-market cars duty-free to service men abroad. Business was good, and soon he was selling brandy and other extravagant treats to Japanese tourists in Hawaii; the money continued to pour in as he expanded his market to Hong Kong and beyond. But despite his growing wealth, Feeney reverted to his social conscience and to active philanthropy. This dominant retailer of brand-name goods kept his own name concealed, and the code of omerta applied to all who dealt with his secret foundations. With the line between the donor and the charities often porous, subterfuges shrouded major unsolicited gifts to Feeney's alma mater, to Sinn Fin and to many other beneficiaries around the world (between 1998 and 2006, his Atlantic Philanthropies "provided $220 million for a series of building and scholarship projects and health initiatives in Vietnam.") A decade ago, the cloak and checkbook operation was finally exposed. Feeney, who flies economy class, wears a $15-dollar watch and uses plastic bags for briefcases, was ready to provide a public example for other wealthy people. There was a split with his former partners when the declining business was sold at the top of the market, but Feeney's ex-associates, now immensely rich, do not seem to have adopted his principles. A smart business book detailing some vicissitudes of retailing, wrapped in a vivid biography of an engaging tycoon. - Kirkus Reviews Learn More: The Fable of Stone Soup PersonalLifemedia.com on Philanthropic Travel Travel Connoisseur Magazine on Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travel Worldwide Understanding Philanthropic Travel Affluent Parents Dedicated to Instilling Philanthropic Values in their Children Fast Company Magazine on Philanthropic Travel Philanthropic Traveler funded High School opens near Victoria Falls, Zambia My First Philanthropic Travel Experience Giving while Living: The Deeper News About the New Philanthropy Dr. Jeffrey Sachs on the Strategic Steps Out of Poverty Are We Talking about Philanthropy Yet? No, We Are Not Philanthropic Travelers: Marc Gold's 100Friends lead Philanthropic Travelers in Asia, Africa & South America Visionary Philanthropic Traveler Chellie Kew Rachael Paulson Philanthropic Traveler Milton & Fred Ochieng: Philanthropic Travelers Jane Kaye- Bailey: Philanthropic Traveler Richard Branson: Philanthropic Traveler Angelina Jolie: Philanthropic Traveler Oprah Winfrey: Philanthropic Traveler Palm Beach Life Magazine: Philanthropic Travelers Exquisite Safaris www.exquisitesafaris.com