What made T. Boone Pickens, oilman, corporate raider and hedge fund billionaire, go from giving away mere millions to donating hundreds of millions?
"It's pretty easy: I made more money," says Pickens, who earned the No. 8 spot on the list of the most generous Americans with donations of $172 million last year. "I had it to give away. And I have figured out I can't take it with me. So why not give it and see the results instead of leaving it and never knowing what happens to it?"
Ten years ago, when the online magazine Slate named the top 60 donations of 1996, a roster now compiled jointly with The Chronicle of Philanthropy, there were just two gifts of $100 million or more. Since 2001, the number of $100 million givers has been in double digits.
The list was begun shortly after media mogul Ted Turner criticized other billionaires for not giving away enough money. "All the money is in the hands of these few rich people, and none of them give any money away. It's dangerous for them and for the country," Turner told The New York Times in 1996. "Why isn't it better to be the biggest giver rather than the biggest hog?"
[Excerpt of an article by Martha T. Moore, USA Today]
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