Preface: Last night, Scenery held a big party. He set up a donation box at the gate. At the very beginning I thought that he wished attendees to share some fee, or give the money to commonweal. Therefore, it’s totally out of my expectation that he announced the donation to our association TECC! Thanks so much to Scenery and the gangs of his friends!I decided to post an essay about charities. Months ago I wrote this for a course named American Society and Cultures. Wish it helps if you are interested in modern philanthropy. It’s just a peek into the topic. There are many people and organizations supporting charity in different ways and different levels. Brooks run to sea. That’s it.
1. Philanthropy & Charity
In a modern usage, charity means the giving of help to
those in need. In the etymology perspective, the word ‘charity’ came from the
Latin ‘caritas’, and it is one of the Christian triplet ‘faith, hope and
charity’, meaning an unlimited loving-kindness to all others. A more plain
explanation is that charity is either direct or indirect act of giving money,
goods or time to the unfortunate. The proper objects include the poor,
particularly the widows and orphans, and the sick and disabled. Most well-known
charitable activities are providing food, water, clothing, and shelter, and
tending the ill. But donations to eliminate cause of poverty, disease are also
charity. Modern charity concerns more with this form.
Generally speaking, philanthropy is a sort of charity.
More specifically, it is a part of charity, denoting to the act of donating
money, goods, time, or effort in a period of time and in regard to targeted
objectives. Philanthropy cares more about a wider objective such as promoting
good and improving human quality of life. Philanthropy is a major income source
of artistic, musical, humanitarian causes, and educational institutions,
ranging from school to universities. Some famous philanthropists are
Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Gates. However, people may do philanthropic without
having great wealth.
In US various organizations are established to promote
charitable activities and detect charity fraud. Any organization meeting the
501(c)(3) rules can be labeled a charity, including trusts, foundations and
corporations. Charities can enjoy tax exemption for their income, and donators
can get tax relieves for their offering to charity. If a 501(c)(3) organization
doesn’t qualify for tax exemption, US law also allows it to obtain
significant tax advantages. Due to the tax issues, some philanthropists or
foundations are criticized by media that their main purpose is to reducing tax.
2. Traditional and Modern Charitable Practice
I divide the charitable practice into two
kinds. One is the traditional form and is also widely functions nowadays. The
other is the modern philanthropy. Traditional practice tends to provide
specific and direct offering to the objects. Almsgiving is the main form.
Religious organizations play an important role. Such charities are widely
advocated in all religions, such as Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. In US
the Christian organizations have more obvious influence. For example, churches
provided free food and shelter for many people in the Great Depression.
Modern philanthropy pays more attention
to the cause of poverty and unfortunate. It prefers to charity activities that
can improve good for as many people as possible. It is widely recognized that John
D. Rockefeller defined the structure of modern philanthropy. He had certain
rules in choose charities. Therefore his donations mainly went to institutions
of education, medical research, agriculture and public health. His charitable
activities had great effect in forming modern US society. Many contemporary
philanthropists and foundations credit to the Rockefellers.
3. Three Representatives of Modern Philanthropist
In the US history and today society, there
are a lot of philanthropists, ranging from nameless citizens to famous elite
people. I single out three representatives of them: John D. Rockefeller, Bill
Gates, and Warren Buffet. They have tremendous influence in other social fields
and their charities are differentiated to today and future philanthropy
development.
3.1. John D. Rockefeller
Rockefeller was born on July 8, 1839.
When he was a teenager, Rockefeller declared that his two great ambitions were
to make $100, 000 and to live 100 years. He died in 1937, 26 months ahead of
his 100 birthday. In early years he was well known for two things: Standard Oil
and Trust. In 1911 Standard Oil was convicted of monopolistic practice and
broken up. Ever since that Rockefeller spent the rest of his life creating
modern targeted philanthropy, and creating foundations that prompted
advancements in medicine, education, and scientific research. For example, his
foundations contributed to the eradication of yellow fever and hookworm. He
provided donations to many schools and universities. University of Chicago
was turned from a small Baptist college to a world-class institution with his
$80M donations. He called it ‘the best investment I ever made’. He founded a
medical research institute in New
York and it was renamed to Rockefeller University 64
years later. The university claims a connection to 23 Nobel Prize winners. His
oil industrial and philanthropic activities have great impact on forming modern
US
society.
3.2. Bill Gates
Bill Gates was born on October 28, 1955. As the Forbes
richest person since 1995, Bill may be the most famous figure of our era. He is
widely admired as an entrepreneur, but criticized by suspicious monopolistic
practice. Since establishing the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000,
Bill has made large bulks of donations to various charitable organizations,
scientific research programs, and public schools. Bill has credited David
Rockefeller’s generosity and educated his son with the Rockefeller family’s
philanthropic efforts. Bill and David modeled their donations of supporting
global problems ignored by governments and other organizations. As of now, the foundation
has funded college scholarships, AIDS prevention, and eliminating diseases
prevalent in third world countries etc. On June 16, 2006, Gates announced that
he will become a part-time employee in Microsoft and begin a full-time career
in philanthropy since July 2008. Bill credited Warren Buffet with influencing
his devoting to full-time charitable practice. Days later, Buffet announced his
bulks of donation to Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in stock.
3.3. Warren Buffet
Warren Buffet was born on August 30, 1930. Buffet is
well-known for his distinguished and long term success in the stock market. John
D. Rockefeller and Bill Gates are criticized for their monopolistic form of
business practice. However, Warren Buffet’s money is unimpeachable. He earned
it through mathematical security analysis and cautious investment in the stock
market, which is unmatchable in long term and widely admired by the world. Forbes
has ranked 3rd richest person in the world as of 2007. Though Buffet
owns tremendous money, he lives a quite simple life. He started to show
formidable business potential since his childhood. As a teenager, Buffet
collected his money carefully by distributing newspapers and later running a
game company with his teenager friend. Later he invested in the stock market
conservatively but became an evergreen tree in the past 40 years. Due to his
teenager experience, Buffet doesn’t provide much money to his 3 children. They
started to earn money by delivering newspapers as early as Buffet. Buffet said,
‘I want to give my kids enough so that they could feel that they could do
anything, but not so much that they could do nothing.’ Therefore, Buffet has
decided to donate most of his money. He chose to give bulks of donations to the
Bill & Melinda Foundation because he feels confident enough in trusting
Bill Gates. Another differentiated philanthropic practice by Buffet is the
charities of Birkshire Hathaway. Unlike many other companies, Hathaway makes
donations to charitable organizations decided by stockholders’ flavors, instead
of by company management team.
4. Conclusion
Charities are indispensable in US
society. So are other countries and societies. Charities can cover issues
ignored by governments or other organizations, providing love to all mankind.
The traditional form of charities has played and will continue to play
important roles in US
society. However, modern philanthropy has become more and more influencing in
US since Rockefeller’s practice. It is a strong force that boosts advancements
in arts, scientific research, education, and public health. In China there are also many anonymous and
well-known philanthropists but I wish that we can learn something from US modern
philanthropy.
Bibliography
Charity Practice, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charity_%28practice%29,
April 23, 2007
Charity Organization, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charitable_cause,
April 23, 2007
Roger Lowenstein, The Making of An American Capitalist, Hainan
Press, 1997
Ron Chernow, The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Melanie Jackson
Agency, 2000
Charity (virtual), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charity_%28virtue%29,
April 23, 2007
John D. Rockefeller, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rockefeller,
April 23, 2007
Bill Gates, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates,
April 24, 2007
Warren Buffet, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Buffett,
April 24, 2007
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