Do-gooders who transform wealth's burden
By Stefan Stern
Published: September 27 2006 03:00 | Last updated: September 27 2006 03:00
This altruism business is getting very competitive. No sooner had Warren Buffett announced that he would eventually be handing over the best part of his $40bn (£21bn) of wealth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, than up popped Sir Richard Branson to declare that he would donate up to $3bn to the cause of halting and reversing global warming.
We need a Stanley Kubrick to do justice to this bizarre arms race of giving, a seeming inversion of the "greed is good" 1980s.
Charles and Elizabeth Handy have picked an ideal moment to publish their new book. Sensing the new mood, they set about identifying and interviewing some ofthe new philanthropists who have rediscovered the artof giving. They ended up with a list of 23 names: some well-known, others more obscure.
The Handys come as acreative double act, and the book draws on the respective talents of both. Charles has done the interviewing and the writing, while Elizabeth has shot portraits and also a series of still-lifes, composed by the interviewees, which represent their interests and the things in life that matter most to them.
The result is a thought-provoking and at times moving account of 23 different lives, absolutely topical in its theme and yet pleasingly old-fashioned in its unhurried and understated tone.
What the philanthropists have in common is an awareness that financial success is ultimately meaningless if you have not made some sort of useful contribution to the world.
"The chance to do this," one interviewee says, referring to his philanthropic work, "makes the whole business of making money worthwhile."
Who are these philanthropists? They range fromform-er UK footballer Tony Adams, who set up a clinic to help sportsmen and sportswomen deal with problems of addiction, to Jeff Skoll, who is reinvesting his Ebay millions in his own foundation for social entrepreneurship, as well as backing edgy Hollywood films (such as Syriana and Good Night and Good Luck) that might otherwise not have been made.
The Handys tell the story of Sara Davenport, who sold her much-loved art gallery to found the Breast Cancer Haven charity, after she was appalled to discover how her former nanny was struggling with the disease. Ms Davenport, like so many of thephilanthropists featured here, used the tenacious skills of the entrepreneurto get what she wanted - but for a charitable purpose. "It is hard to resist Sara under full steam," Handy writes.
Ram Gidoomal was running a £100m import business when a visit to a shanty town in Mumbai changed his life. "I was absolutely devastated by the appalling sights I saw," he says. "How come at the age of 37, al-though I was an international businessman who had been to university, I could be so unaware of the hardship that over a billion people suffer?" On the flight home Mr Gidoomal was offered caviar and champagne, which he declined. He now gives two-thirds of his time to philanthropic ventures.
When Sir Tom Hunter sold his chain of sports shops to JJB Sports in 1998, he found himself sitting on £250m, and uncertain what to do next. He has been reinvigorated as a businessman by philanthropy, setting up a foundation, and working in Africa with former US president Bill Clinton.
There are other extraordinary stories here. Every month, Irish property developer Niall Mellon flies out to South Africa with a team of builders to work on his campaign to replace ramshackle housing in the townships with proper homes.
"I have a very successful business," he says, "but I want to be al-most out of it in three years and to devote the next 10 years to fulfilling my life in a much more balanced way."
Most remarkable, at least in the eyes of FT readers, might be John Studzinski, the former Morgan Stanley and HSBC investment bank-er, who now works for the private equity group Blackstone. Well, that is his day job. His diary is full to bursting with all sorts of other philanthropic activities too.
"I am very cynical about money," Mr Studzinski says. "If philanthropy involves giving your time and energy as well as your money, then you really create something new, and you learn something about yourself in the process."
What a hard book this is for a gloom-seeking, doom-mongering hack to review. It is full of the sort of "good news" that rarely makes it into news bulletins. But there are many inspiring stories here.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
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