The Legacy of Charles Feeney: Could You Give Most of Your Money Away and Still Live?

Here's my proposition. Give away 99% of your money, with still many years left in your life, and live on the remainder. It almost seems impossible and somewhat crazy. But yet one man did.

It was recently announced that philanthropist Charles Feeney passed away.  In his professional life, he was a co-founder of the “duty-free shops” you see in airports. He amassed a more than $8 billion fortune.  And then, instead of waiting until his passing, he spent the last decade-plus of his life giving almost all of his money away to charity. Literally. He left himself with just enough money to live a modest life.

We talk about philanthropy in so many different ways. There's the “giving pledge” that asks the wealthy to donate the majority of their accumulated wealth to nonprofits. Gift officers, around the world, asked donors to make gifts to missions that they work for and believe in. But how many people do you know that would consider giving away so much of their wealth that they have very little of it left? And at the upper limits, no more private planes, multiple homes, et cetera. That's exactly what Charles Feeney did.

For many years, Charles Feeney was giving away his money in anonymity. He finally became more public about it to inspire others. I was so fascinated by his story that I did one of the first three original great philanthropist podcasts on him (https://www.hallettphilanthropy.com/podcast/special-edition-great-philanthropists-charles-feeney).  I learned and shared that not only did he give more than $8 billion away to many different causes, but not one building would carry his name in stewardship recognition. To me, he always sounded like the ultimate gentleman philanthropist. He was exactly the kind of person we in the fundraising world pray we find as one of our donors.

I never met Charles Feeney. I don't know anybody who knows Charles Feeney. But today, I feel the loss of an amazing human being who wanted to spend his great fortune and his love helping his fellow man. The fact that we never met is entirely a loss for me.