Quotes About Philanthropy

One of the most infuriating traits of some philanthropoids is their practice of dragging out grantmaking decisions beyond any reasonable time frame, while failing to offer any clear signals about the real likelihood of approval. When the proposal has been solicited by the foundation in the first place—which is usually the case nowadays—this behavior is even more reprehensible.

Foundations are dandy things, but the truth is few institutions are as complacent and potentially unaccountable to the real world as private foundations. When I was a public official, my dealings with philanthropy often left me with the question—who do they think they are?

However, in 2004 there were only some seven hundred community foundations in the United States and almost three thousand corporate foundations, so the overwhelming number of the approximately 68,000 American foundations are independent foundations that are effectively unaccountable to any outside force.)

It's amazing how people will give when you don't ask. Many of them send money because they believe in the message.

Don't say that you want to give, but go ahead and give! You'll never catch up with a mere hope.

It seems like the more I give the more I get, and that is the way it is supposed to go in life.

What we employ in charitable uses during our lives is given away from ourselves; what we bequeath at our death is given from others only, as our nearest relations.

The only thing you can do with your life is give it away. The best, happiest moments in your life are always when you're giving something away.

Philanthropy is almost the only virtue which is sufficiently appreciated by mankind.

My whole concept in life is if you're not using it, you should give it to somebody else so they can use it.

The dead carry with them to the grave in their clutched hands only that which they have given away.

Many people despise wealth, but few know how to give it away.

Allow your team to incorporate giving into their life through their job. Not only do employees stay around a lot longer, they do a lot more good.

The real joy in life comes from giving. It comes from service. It comes from doing things for other people. That is what is so powerful about this. Nothing will make you happier than giving.

More good has been accomplished by simple people seeking their own honest ends than by all the philanthropists in history.

Give, do not lend; after death who will thank you?

The philosopher's stone which turned a mobster in Newport, Kentucky into a pillar of the community in Las Vegas, Nevada was "philanthropy.

Her idea of business— "Henry, why do people who have enough money try to get more money?" Her idea of politics— "I am sure that if the mothers of various nations could meet, there would be no more wars

By all means subscribe to charities — subscribe to them largely — but don't get carried away by absurd schemes of Social Reform. I see a good deal behind the scenes, and you can take it from me that there is no Social Question — except for a few journalists who try to get a living out of the phrase. There are just rich and poor, as there always have been and always will be. Point me out a time when men have been equal

White liberals weren't loud racists. They were simply racial philanthropists who, after a good deed, return to their suburban homes with their white picket fences or to their apartments in segregated cities with their consciences content. Baldwin was not shy about calling this out.

White liberals weren't loud racists. They were simply racial philanthropists who, after a good deed, return to their suburban homes with their white picket fences or to their apartments in segregated cities with their consciences content.

It is important to this people to grapple with the problems connected with the amassing of enormous fortunes, and the use of those fortunes, both corporate and individual, in business.… No amount of charity in spending such fortunes in any way compensates for misconduct in making them.

With an intelligence too fine to be violated by ideas, she had learned that she was searching not for self-transformation (she liked herself) but for something good to do.

It was several years later that Mrs. Wallis told me the story of her philanthropy, which was always personal and individual rather than as part of an organization. She never appeared in the photos of the women's committee of this or that charity. She did her good works alone and quietly, although her obituary would be headed: "Angel of Hollywood.