The Charitable Impulse: Wealth and Social Conscience in Communities and Cultures Outside the United States

by James A. Joseph

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0879543000
• ISBN13: 9780879543006
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: The Foundation Center
• Length: 210 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Charitable Impulse

The Charitable Impulse takes you beyond the mystique and into the psyche of some of the wealthiest people outside the United States. The first complete look at the intricate personalities and life experiences of legendary figures abroad, it presents philanthropy in a global context. Introducing the foreign counterparts of the Rockerfellers, Vanderbilts and other wealthy American families, the author provides a compeling collection of profiles that show how compassionate values are developed, nurtured and activated. Based on extensive research and personal interviews from around the world, he tells what motivates the charitable impulse. Moreover, he describes how we, as a society, can help perpetuate it. Each profile looks at a person, past or present, who made the conscious decision to use great wealth for the common good. Examining why someone would do such a thing, the author illustrates characteristics that cross all cultural boundaries. What's more, he shows how widely motives might differ. Ranging from the most noble to the most self-serving, some are quite controversial. Adnan Khashoggi, for example, made sizable donations to charitable causes, but how does he make his money, and what are his real motives? Harry Oppenheimer, major architect of South Africa's diamond industry is himself a contradiction. Although he founded the Urban Foundation to ameliorate the impact of apartheid, is he not part of the mainstream that tolerates it? In addition to these stories, you'll find the compelling tales of other weallthy benefactors around the globe, including England's Angel Burdett-Coutts, Venezuela's Eugenio Mendoza and Japan's Ryoci Sasakawa. In an era of "new money" The Charitable Impulse asks how we can perpetuate the values that lead to private generosity and public benevolence. At a time of government cutbacks, limited philanthropic funds and "a thousand points of light," the author adds a valuable international dimension to the world of literaature on philanthropy, fundraising, voluntarism and civic values. --- from book's back cover