Stories from the 50% League
Here are a few examples from the 70 people who have already joined the 50% League in its pre-launch year.
Norma and Hal Taussig — age 80
I was a Colorado cattle rancher until age 33, school teacher and college professor until age 45, and then creatively unemployed until age 50, when my wife, Norma, and I founded a travel company called Idyll, Ltd. Idyll serves Americans who want to travel to Europe in more meaningful ways than they can get from the standard superficial tour. We have worked over thirty years to build a model company. Employees are provided above average salaries and benefits, including two to four weeks in Europe to "consume the product we produce." Our office is run on only renewable energy. Plus almost all of the profits go to the Idyll Development Foundation; my wife and I have been living for years just on social security checks.
The Idyll Development Foundation provides low-income business loans to the poor. The foundation has loaned about $3 million since 1993. 50% has been local, in the urban Philadelphia area, 30% national, including Native American reservations, and 20% international. Having lost about $1 million in bad loans, we're trying to learn to be smarter at business. But we're willing to take big risks, and the meaning of my life is about what we're doing to make people's lives better. People praise me for my generosity, but frankly, it's my own way of getting kicks out of life.
Idyll Development Foundation: untours.com/idf
Why should a fortune be something you leave only after you die?
John Hunting - age 74
When I got a $130,000,000 windfall in 1998, I decided to give it away quickly. If you’re an environmentalist like me, given the state of the world, you can’t afford to wait.
When I was 6 years old, my father gave me stock in a small company he co-founded, Metal Office Furniture Company, which made fireproof safes and steel wastebaskets. Eventually it became the world’s largest manufacturer of office equipment, Steelcase. In 1998, the company went public, and my stock surged.
I already had the practice of giving away 50% or more of my income over the prior 30 years. I had given away 100% for ten years when I had a trust that let me give away more without tax consequences. I had started a foundation, the Beldon Fund, so when my stock rose in value, it seemed natural to pass $100,000,000 of my new wealth to the foundation.
The Beldon Fund was set up to run for 10 years and will spend out by 2009. I’ve also decided to give away the rest of my inheritance by 2010.
The wonderful thing about giving away more than half of my income is that it frees me up to make more political contributions. I also believe in giving as much as possible to political candidates and causes. Environmental issues are strengthened or destroyed by what Congress and the President do – just look at the devastation we’ve seen since 2000! That’s why it’s imperative to support candidates and political groups. I give the maximum tax deductible amount, 50% of income, to foundations and charities, and then give the rest to partisan groups (such as 501(c)4s, PACs and 527s).
I believe that it is immoral to hoard money when global warming is on the verge of destroying the eco-systems we depend on.
The time to give is now.
Carol Newell — in her 40's
Twelve years ago, I decided to use my $25 million inheritance to help create a more just and sustainable economy in the region I love, British Columbia. I assembled a team of exceptional people to implement a model I call "whole-portfolio activation to mission" — that is, taking wealth to its greatest capacity to stimulate change. The money has more than doubled as I've put it to use, and its impact has brought me enormous satisfaction.
The model, which I've started to promote to others, has three components:
- through investment: to seed and grow businesses with innovative entrepreneurs who share one's vision and values
- through philanthropy: to conserve land and forests, promote environmental sustainability, and develop leadership skills based in partnership and interconnectedness and
- to focus these interwoven efforts in one geographical area.
In retrospect, we've discovered another important component of the model is to provide stable, accessible and intriguing gathering spaces to anchor and strengthen a community's overlapping circles. (See RenewalPartners.org and endswell.org for more.)
After a decade of ultra-anonymity, I now feel compelled to encourage others with wealth to activate their fortunes with similar passion, scale, and strategic focus. I speak to groups of philanthropists, telling my story, and co-host a gathering called Play BIG!
So many of us are hemmed in by traditional rules about money, both spoken and unspoken: you should always maximize profits and build capital; you should never touch the principal, nor talk openly about money, nor do business with friends, nor mix business with charitable concerns. When we escape these limiting precepts, those of us with significant discretionary capital can have the greatest legacy imaginable: to dramatically accelerate innovations in sustainability and social justice. We can begin to reframe the economy to reflect our values instead of our values being driven by the economy.
Jamie Schweser — age 32
I grew up in the punk rock scene. Our slogan was D.I.Y. — Do It Yourself. Since I was 16, I've known that if we want the world to be a more fair place with justice for everybody, we have to do it ourselves.
When I lived in New Orleans, I tutored kids in my neighborhood. Every kid I knew had at least one family member in prison, and going by the statistics for Black males in our neighborhood, most would end up in prison by the age that white kids from Uptown would graduate from college. One kid, Jerry, loved playing music. He'd get the other kids in the neighborhood to form into a marching band and march around my yard. When he was 15, he got busted for drugs and faced 6 years in prison. I ended up going to court with Jerry's mom 8 times, and because a white person who could read showed up, the judge let him out on a probationary program.
When my parents sold their business, I got a million dollars, giving me opportunities they never had. But it's more than I need, which doesn't make me any happier. I give 75% of the money I get from my family to social justice work. I put $500,000 into the Beyond Prisons Fund, and I work with an advisory board of 8 long-time activists to promote alternatives to incarceration.
I'm the Donor Education Coordinator at Resource Generation, a national organization working with progressive young people with wealth. I used to worry that my story might intimidate people. I don't want people to think I'm pushing an agenda. But I think it makes it easier for people to understand what my work at RG is about.