Would you give all your money away?

or Going For Broke: The Inspirational Philanthropy of Chuck Feeney

Many of us contribute some of our income to charities, or volunteer our time. But few people would honestly answer yes to the above question.

One person who did answer yes is Chuck Feeney. A billionaire who co-founded Duty Free Shoppers (DFS), Feeney wanted to do more than simply spend his money exorbitantly. Inspired by his mother, a nurse, and by Andrew Carnegie’s classic essay, Wealth, Feeney anonymously founded a charitable trust in 1982.

Instead of donating a small percentage of his fortune, Feeney transferred all of his shares from DFS to The Atlantic Foundation. The shares were valued at hundreds of millions of dollars in the 1980’s. Anonymously through The Atlantic Foundation, Feeney empowered leaders throughout disenfranchised parts of the world to make lasting changes, but funding cardiac units, universities, and other social institutions.

Inspiring others

Feeney’s anonymity ended in 1997, but his dedication to making the world a better place didn’t waver. In fact, his commitment to giving away all his wealth within his lifetime has inspired other billionaires to do the same. In 2010, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet announced the Giving Pledge, a campaign to encourage the wealthy people of the world to contribute their wealth to philanthropic causes.

The Pledge was inspired by Feeney. As Warren Buffet said, “Chuck has set an example...he is my hero and Bill Gates’ hero. He should be everybody’s hero.”

Over 140 billionaires around the world have signed the Pledge, committing to giving the majority of their net worth away while still alive. The list includes Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Tim Cook, and many more. The total amount pledged? Over $365 billion.

A lifetime of philanthropy

Did Chuck just wake up one morning and decide to give away all his money?

Not at all. As a son of poor Irish immigrants in the Great Depression, Chuck Feeney showed early entrepreneurial spirit by shoveling snow and selling Christmas cards door-to-door. While he was still in poverty, he read Carnegie essay on wealth, which touched him deeply. Feeney describes the moment he decided to dedicate his life to creating wealth to give away, saying, “I want the last check I write to bounce.”

When Feeney sold DFS in 1996, The Atlantic Foundation took all the money from the sale, committing to spend everything within 20 years. By the time the last grant is handed out in 2016, the Foundation will have given away $8 billion.

Finding joy in generosity

Although Feeney has made billions of dollars, he never found happiness in the things money could buy for himself. “I always tried to live my life as though nothing changed,” he told The Courier Mail. “People would say, 'You can have a Rolls-Royce'. I'd say to that, 'What do I want with a Rolls-Royce when I can have a Volkswagen or a bike?’ Some people get carried away with the juice."

Instead, Feeney found joy in the good his money could do for others. As he said in an interview on The Atlantic Foundation’s website, “I cannot think of a more personally rewarding and appropriate use of wealth than to give while one is living – to personally devote oneself to meaningful efforts to improve the human condition.”

Are you struggling to find happiness in the money you earn? How would that change if you were giving that money to a cause greater than yourself?

What might that cause be? How might it change the way you live your life?

Chuck Feeney decided at an early age to let money flow through him, not to him, and it drastically changed the way he lived his life.

How will his story inspire you today?