“ He is my and Bill Gates’Hero . He should be everybody’s Hero“. These are the words of the smartest investor the world has ever seen, one of the richest men on the planet, Warren Buffet and whom is he referring to as his Hero is the most likely question coming to mind. The answer is Chuck Feeney, the Irish- American co-founder of the Hongkong based Duty Free Shoppers Group( DFS ) and founder of the Atlantic Philanthropies, one of the largest private charitable organisations in the world.
Charitable organisations and Philanthropic initiatives are seen all over the globe and run by wealthy businessmen and so Chuck Feeney launching his own Philanthropic quest in 1982 was nothing unusual. However, what followed from Feeney was nothing more than unusual. In an extremely secretive move in 1984 Feeney transferred his entire fortune, his 38 % stake in DFS worth $500 million at that time to Atlantic Philanthropies. His charity began to help people and institutions alike with a non disclosure clause, thus ensuring that the name of Chuck Feeny was never revealed.
Feeney was helping people without anybody knowing who was actually helping them. Instead of blowing his own trumpet, Feeney silently went about his passion of giving. There were not pats on the back, no accolades, no big headlines. Infact, even his business partners were not in the know that Feeney did not hold any share in DFS any more. This continued for years until the lid on his magnanimous actions was blown off in 2017.
Atlantic Philanthropies at one point of time had 300 employees and offices in 10 countries across the globe, such was the expanse of Feeney’s charity. He eventually gave away all his fortune through Atlantic Philanthropies and closed down the charitable organisation in 2020. The job was completed, he had given everything he had, the billionaire had turned broke, but for a noble cause.
Feeney comes from an exclusive breed of people who are of the opinion that the most rewarding use of wealth is to give it when living. And so has been the nature of Feeney’s actions. He is 91 years old, lives in a rented accommodation and does not even own a car. Feeney’s generosity, I am sure, would have affected millions of lives in a positive way worldwide. His actions are simply awe inspiring and certainly his endeavour to make this world a better place to live, makes him our Hero. Appropriately enough Charles Francis Feeney is known as the James Bond of Philanthropy.
If we learn to give even before we learn to earn, a lot of misery and hardship in this world would come to an end… is a lesson learnt.
Really very good lesson to learnt …very informative n inspiring too
Yes , very inspiring