3/8/07

A Well Informed Gift to Charity

For a growing number in London's financial services, what's "in" -- especially since Warren Buffett said last summer he would give away $37 billion of his personal fortune -- is to be seen to be spending copiously and carefully on those less fortunate.

James Blackburn, head of equities at the London-based stockbroking firm Execution, has in five years raised over £4.4 million for charity. Every year, the firm takes the proceeds of one day's trading and transfers it into a fund called the Execution Charitable Trust. "You have kids and you start thinking about other things that affect you."

Mr. Blackburn's priorities may have changed, but his investment mindset hasn't. He says decisions about charities to support are based not on emotion but on hard-nosed business analysis. "We want to know who is good and who's not," he says. "We want to know that the people you're giving money to are the best in the field. We are an industry of input and output, and people like to see a return on investment."

[Excerpt of an article by Helen Kirwan-Taylor, The Wall Street Journal]

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