# What is the best example you have seen of a rich person being generous? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 4, 2020, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-example-you-have-seen-of-a-rich-person-being-generous/848925 "2020-03-04T15:56:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2020, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-example-you-have-seen-of-a-rich-person-being-generous/848925/21 "2020-03-04T23:26:51Z")
> [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](#): > > A friend and fellow board member of a non-profit I work with was the board’s largest donor. But, she was also the organization’s largest anonymous donor, which I know only because I was their treasurer. She also anonymously funded the organization’s matching contribution campaign in the winter, so she was affirmatively agreeing to be more generous than essentially every other donor. And she anonymously funded a special program to make the organization’s services available to very low-income seniors to make sure everyone could get help. She was cantankerous, curmudgeonly, and gruff. She was invariably one of the smartest people in whatever room she was in. She didn’t suffer fools. Those who knew her wouldn’t necessarily describe her as a saint but she was and she died just a few days ago. The only problem with this is a charity can become too dependent upon this one persons generosity. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2020, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-example-you-have-seen-of-a-rich-person-being-generous/848925/22 "2020-03-05T04:49:59Z")
I have not personally witnessed a rich person being generous. I have seen reports of generosity but have not seen in happen in front of me. The closest might be a (worthy) charity flower auction where fairly nice examples drew unnecessarily high bids. Wait, I just thought of an example, in Santa Rosa, California. PEANUTS cartoonist Charles Schultz donated large amounts to local causes including a guide-dog campus we also contributed to in our meager way. Of course I note institutions that benefited from blood money. I’m not sure Carnegie or the Koch Bros were being “generous” with their philanthropies. And don’t get me started on Bezos. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2020, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-example-you-have-seen-of-a-rich-person-being-generous/848925/23 "2020-03-05T05:14:54Z")
Addendum: My fuzzy brain just remembered that MrsRico and I recently visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where prominent exhibits were funded by Silicon Valley pioneers David Packard (of HP) and Gordon Moore (Fairchild, Intel). I don’t think they exploited too many people for their money so I’ll count them as good philanthropists whose generosity I’ve witnessed and benefited from. But don’t get me started on Bezos. ---
**Author:** ![Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tired_and_Cranky)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2020, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-example-you-have-seen-of-a-rich-person-being-generous/848925/24 "2020-03-05T14:12:39Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > The only problem with this is a charity can become too dependent upon this one persons generosity. I will trust that this is a well-meaning expression of your sincere concern and not an effort to shit on the small part of my friend’s legacy of which I was a part. I could go into great detail about why you shouldn’t worry yourself over this but I won’t. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2020, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-example-you-have-seen-of-a-rich-person-being-generous/848925/25 "2020-03-05T19:22:52Z")
I don’t know how rich he is/was, but Dan Price of Gravity Payments famously made all employee salaries at his company a minimum $70,000/year. He cut his own salary from over a million a year to $70,000 to cover it. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2020, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-example-you-have-seen-of-a-rich-person-being-generous/848925/26 "2020-03-06T14:47:18Z")
> [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](#): > > I will trust that this is a well-meaning expression of your sincere concern and not an effort to shit on the small part of my friend’s legacy of which I was a part. I could go into great detail about why you shouldn’t worry yourself over this but I won’t. No. No insult intended. I just know how easy it is for an organization to get used to a single funding source and what happens when they leave. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2020, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-example-you-have-seen-of-a-rich-person-being-generous/848925/27 "2020-03-06T15:15:13Z")
In 1981, [Eugene Lang](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/08/nyregion/eugene-lang-dead-harlem-college.html) (paywall warning) was supposed to give the commencement address to 61 sixth-graders at PS 121 (his alma mater) in New York. He spontaneously offered all of them (mostly African-American and Hispanic kids) college scholarships. But he didn’t stop there. He mentored the kids through school, including taking them to dinner, on trips and intervening when they had problems. Later, he started a foundation to do the same thing for other kids, and encouraged other wealthy people to do the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2020, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-example-you-have-seen-of-a-rich-person-being-generous/848925/28 "2020-03-06T15:19:08Z")
[The Rockefeller Sanitary Commission](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3910046/), in 6 years, fought the hookworm epidemic which plagued the South since the 18th century. At the start of the commission in 1909, 40% of southerners suffered from hookworm, by its end… 6 years later… this number had dropped by half, and the RSC’s successor, the International Health Board, claimed… with a bit of hyperbole… that hookworm was effectively eradicated by 1927. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-example-you-have-seen-of-a-rich-person-being-generous/848925.md?page=1)