Not Only Billionaires Give Big
We hear that a bold, new spirit of philanthropy is in the air.
- Warren Buffett set records by giving $30 billion to the Gates Foundation.
- Oprah Winfrey turned her audience members into philanthropists by giving each of them money to donate.
- Business Week’s annual list of “The 50 Most Generous Philanthropists” has eleven new names this year who gave a total of over $4 billion from 2002 to 2006.
- Slate held a conference on “Innovative Philanthropy,” and the New York Times wrote about “philanthropreneurs.”
Indeed, these are inspiring.
But billionaires aren’t the only ones who give big.
For decades, people with “ordinary wealth” and people who are not wealthy at all – people like the 50% League members and no doubt thousands of others – have been quietly giving far beyond our national average of 2% to 3% of income.
Unlike the billionaire mega-donors, most 50%ers have neither fame nor extraordinary levels of wealth. That’s why their example is so powerful. Most of us don’t tend to think, "Hey, if Warren Buffett can do it, so can I." But when a comfortably affluent person, whose assets may be similar to our own, gives 10 or 100 times more than we ever considered, we may stop and wonder about our own giving capacity.
While there are only a few hundred billionaires able to emulate the mega-donors, there are an estimated 8 million millionaires in the U.S. alone. And there are a great many others who have the discretion to choose between luxury spending and increased donations.
Imagine for a moment that a new wave of generosity spreads across the world with people giving at their true potential, whether that is 5% or 95%. By some accounts, we could easily generate enough money to fully meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals with improved health care, nutrition, education and a clean environment for everyone in the world.
What would you give to make that vision a reality? What is your full giving potential? »