Free Republic

Many Americans were startled to learn that the Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, whose campaign is built on an uplifting message of national unity and racial reconciliation, belongs to a church in Chicago where a very different view of America is preached by its longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Mr. Wright, who just retired after decades in the pulpit, has argued that the "United States of White America" is still sharply divided between an oppressive white power structure and oppressed African-Americans, that God should "damn America for treating our citizens as less than human," and that the 2001 terrorist...

BOSTON (Reuters) - Philanthropist David Rockefeller donated a record $100 million to Harvard University's undergraduate program, the largest gift by a Harvard alumnus in the history of the oldest and richest U.S. college. About $70 million will be used to expand Harvard's student travel and study abroad programs and $30 million will go to arts education, the Cambridge, Massachusetts, school said in a statement on Friday. Rockefeller, 92, the last surviving grandchild of billionaire oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, is listed by Forbes magazine as one of the 150 wealthiest Americans, with an estimated fortune of $2.7 billion. He graduated...

Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign released their tax forms from 2000-2007 Thursday, which showed the Clintons earned more than $100 million in that time period and donated $10 million of that to their own charity. The Clinton campaign reports donating $10,256,741 to the CFF between 2000 and 2006. During that time, CFF dispersed $2,530,100 in money to other charities and causes. The names of other persons who donated to the CFF are not required to be disclosed. Over the years, the CFF gave $80,000 to the Clinton Birthplace Foundation Inc., $20,000 to the Shakespeare Theatre, $40,000 to the School of the...

Here is a very long word that may be new to you (I Googled it and, at the time of writing, it has only 2,710 hits): philanthrocapitalism. If you wish to be very hip and savvy, you can call it Philanthropy 3.0. At bottom - though, as we shall see, there is more to it - this is about very rich people, such as Bill Gates, Jeff Skoll (the creator of eBay), Bono, George Soros and the founders of Google, giving away lots of money. What's wrong with that? It shows they have a heart, doesn't it? But I have...

Charity, do-gooding, philanthropy it’s all just selfishness masquerading as virtue. So says the cynic. In modern times, the theory that each of us, despite occasional appearances of self-sacrificial nobility, is ultimately and invariably looking out for No. 1 got a big boost from Darwin’s theory of evolution. By the logic of natural selection, any tendency to act selflessly ought to be snuffed out in the struggle to survive and propagate. So if someone seems to be behaving as an altruist — say, by giving away a fortune to relieve the sufferings of others — that person is really following the...

The family of Utah inventor and billionaire philanthropist James LeVoy Sorenson said today that he willed his entire personal fortune to charity. Sorenson died of cancer last month at age 86. Last year, Forbes Magazine estimated his wealth to be approximately $4.5 billion. Sorenson was known for his numerous medical inventions and successful business endeavors, in addition to his dedication to charitable causes. His son, James Lee Sorenson, said his father had talked about leaving his vast fortune behind to help various worthy causes. "Over time, particularly the last 10 to 20 years having been successful, he asked himself, 'What...

ERIE, Pa. - Mike Batchelor invited the heads of 46 charities into his downtown office for one-on-one meetings to personally deliver the news. Nearby, on a small table, sat a box of tissues. And then he proceeded: A donor had given a staggering $100 million to the Erie Community Foundation, and all of the charities would receive a share. That was when the tears began to flow — and the mystery began — in this struggling old industrial city of 102,000 on Lake Erie, where the donor is known only as "Anonymous Friend." Batchelor, president of the Erie Community Foundation,...

Microsoft Corp. marked the end of its annual giving campaign by hosting former President Bill Clinton for a campus visit. Clinton, joining Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to reveal the results of this year’s campaign, told a standing-room-only audience of more than 1,000 employees and thousands more watching via webcast that every individual, regardless of status or income, can help solve global challenges such as climate change and poverty.

Google is a public company that operates the amazingly successful online search engine. Its founders have decided to create a philanthropic arm for the company called Google.org. Their aim is to change the world by fighting poverty, reversing global warming, and landing a robot on the moon. But if the company ever runs into financial trouble, will its shareholders still appreciate the founders’ grandiose projects?...... Google Inc.’s billionaire founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page have decided to use their shareholders’ money to fund their adventures in philanthropy...... ...Page and Brin have outlined a sweeping, almost utopian vision for Google.org. In...

NEW YORK (AP) - Former President Clinton will appear on Oprah Winfrey's TV talk show next Tuesday, Sept. 4, his first interview to promote "Giving," a book on philanthropy and civic action coming out the same day. Clinton's appearance was announced Monday in an e-mail - "The first interview about his new passion!" - sent to members of Winfrey's book club. Winfrey, who interviewed Clinton in 2004 for his memoir "My Life," has good reason to think highly of the new book. "Giving" praises Winfrey's "Angel Network," which has donated millions of dollars around the world, from money for schools...

As Chicago companies broaden their market horizons, they also are broadening the meaning of charity Digging deep: To help Beijing prepare for the 2008 Olympics, Caterpillar donated a hydraulic excavator, like this one, to the Chinese government. It's a big world, and as Chicago's largest businesses go global, their charitable giving is following them. Tapping new markets like China, India and Eastern Europe, many firms are expanding their community involvement to include all the places where they do business. Simply put, giving makes for good business. It's part of a larger trend in corporate philanthropy. The share of U.S. corporate...

"The rich are different from you and me," wrote Fitzgerald and I suppose they are, but the differences – they wax and wane with the economic tides. Gilded ages come, go, and are reborn on the monsoon cloudbursts of seemingly intangible forces such as globalization, innovation, and favorable tax policy. For the rich to be truly rich and multiply their numbers, they need help. Adept surfers they may be, but like all riders, the wealthy need a seventh wave that allows them to preen their skills and declare themselves masters of their own universe, if only for a moment in...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Investor Warren Buffett may hold the title as America's top donor, but his well-heeled competitors helped make 2006 a record year for charitable giving, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reported on Friday. ADVERTISEMENT A record 21 Americans each gave at least $100 million to charitable causes last year, in what amounted to a banner year for universities, medical centers, arts groups and other organizations that depend on charitable giving, the publication reported. Buffett's $36.1 billion check to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation dwarfed other donations as the Berkshire Hathaway CEO began to give away his sizable fortune....

It has been years since Conrad Dobler terrorized pro football, but his plan for last Sunday was like that of most Americans: He would be a hostage to Super Bowl XLI, although with somewhat divided loyalties. During a career when he was billed as "the dirtiest player in the NFL," Dobler once toiled with the New Orleans Saints, whose quarterback was Archie Manning. "A great guy, and of course, his son Peyton is the man with the Indianapolis Colts," Dobler said last week. "So it's hard not to pull for Peyton. Then again, I was born in Chicago. I don't...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - Around here, T. Denny Sanford is not known just for the billions he made in banking — he's also known for the millions he has donated. When officials at Sioux Valley Hospitals & Health Systems told him of their dream to transform the facility into a major research institution for children's health, he donated $400 million, and they promised to rename the institution after him — Sanford Health. "I have been quoted as wanting to die broke," Sanford , 71, said at Saturday's announcement before 1,800 employees and community leaders. Hospital president and CEO Kelby Krabbenhoft...

REVIEW OF: Who Really Cares: America’s Charity Divide—Who Gives, Who Doesn’t, and Why It Matters by Arthur C. Brooks (Basic Books, 250 pp., $26.00) It’s tempting to say that Arthur Brooks, in his definitive new book on American charitable giving, has shown that there is nothing oxymoronic about the term “compassionate conservative.” That, at least, is the conclusion that critics have drawn from Brooks’s demonstration that conservatives, despite the myth that they lack compassion, give significantly more to charity than liberals do. But in fact Brooks has shown something even more significant: that “compassionate conservative” is not only overly defensive,...

Charitable Nation America, the generous. By Jonah Goldberg Americans are better people than Europeans. Hold on, it gets better. Religious Americans are better than non-religious Americans. And religious Americans tend to be politically conservative. This admittedly tendentious rendering of reality is how some on the right are interpreting Who Really Cares? by Arthur Brooks, a professor of public administration at Syracuse University. Brooks doesn’t really deal with what makes one person “better” or “worse” than any other. But it’s fair to say that how much a person gives — of either his money or time — is usually considered an...

Republicans give a bigger share of their incomes to charity, says a prominent economistIt's been a tough month for conservatives, with the Republican Party losing control of both houses of Congress, but a new book being released this week may help brighten their spirits.  In Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism (Basic Books), Arthur C. Brooks finds that religious conservatives are far more charitable than secular liberals, and that those who support the idea that government should redistribute income are among the least likely to dig into their own wallets to help others.  Some of his findings...

ALEXANDRIA, La. (BP)--A couple of years ago I was being interviewed by a newspaper reporter on the subject of “gay marriage.” Somewhere in the midst of our conversation the discussion turned and the reporter said, “You have to admit that there are places in the Bible where Jesus comes across more like a tax and spend liberal who really wants to help the poor rather than a conservative who wants the disadvantaged to help themselves.” “I don’t know any conservatives that are opposed to helping the poor,” I replied. “We just disagree with liberals on what is the best way...

One of the most pervasive political visions of our time is the vision of liberals as compassionate and conservatives as less caring. It is liberals who advocate "forgiveness" of loans to Third World countries, a "living wage" for the poor and a "safety net" for all. But these are all government policies -- not individual acts of compassion -- and the actual empirical consequences of such policies are of remarkably little interest to those who advocate them. ...snip... A new book, titled "Who Really Cares" by Arthur C. Brooks examines the actual behavior of liberals and conservatives when it comes...