Charles Puck Finney dies after donating 10.8 trillion won of his assets
Donation activities were kept secret…accidentally revealed during the share sale process.
Domestic entrepreneurs also continue to practice ‘noblesse oblige’
[사진=게티이미지뱅크]
Money has the meaning of moving around rather than staying in one place. ‘Hwan’, a unit of currency in the past, also means “conducts evenly” and has the meaning of circulation.
The currently used unit, ‘won’, also comes from the meaning of round. In this way, money can only be expected to function if it circulates around. British philosopher Francis Bacon also said, “Money is like fertilizer; if you don’t spread it, it easily rots.”
DFS co-founder Charles Puck Finney [사진=코넬대 홈페이지·연합뉴스]
On the 9th (local time), a person who flourished in society by using money as fertilizer passed away. This is the story of Charles Puck Feeney, co-founder of DFS, a global duty-free store, who passed away at the age of 92. The American billionaire gave back his entire fortune of $8 billion (approximately 10.8 trillion won) to society and died in a small two-room apartment in San Francisco. He has kept his promise to donate all his assets to society while he is alive.
According to major foreign media such as the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and the New York Times (NYT), Atlantic Philanthropies, a charitable foundation founded by Finney, said on the 9th, “Finney passed away in San Francisco at the age of 92. We mourn his death. “He said. The news of his death came three years after he announced that he would disband the foundation after donating all his assets in 2020.
Previously, Finney gave his entire life savings of about $8 billion to society, excluding $2 million (approximately 2.7 billion won) left for retirement after retirement. The specific use of the donation includes: $1 billion for Cornell University, where Finney studied; $3.7 billion for education; $870 million for human rights and social change, including the abolition of the death penalty ($76 million); $700 million for health care; and $700 million for Obama Healthcare. Support includes $76 million.
“I couldn’t be happier,” he said after letting go of the wealth he had built up all his life. At the end of his donation in 2020, he said, “I am very satisfied and happy that I achieved my goal while I was still alive,” and added, “I would like to say to those who wondered if I would donate all my assets while I was still alive, ‘Try it, it’s really good.'”
Charles Puck Finney, the ‘James Bond’ of the charity world, is also an inspiration to Bill Gates and Warren Buffett
Although the modifier ‘King of Donation’ was added to his name, his donation activities were in fact carried out in complete secrecy. However, in 1997, in the process of selling his stake in duty-free shop DFS to Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH), his accounting books were made public, and his donation was accidentally made public. This is the moment when he came to be called the ‘James Bond’ of philanthropy.
Finney continued his donation activities even after the donation became known. His activities are known to have influenced world-renowned philanthropist Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft (MS), and Warren Buffett, who heads investment firm Berkshire Hathaway. Buffett said of Finney, “He is a monumental figure who greatly inspired my donation activities,” and added, “What he accomplished in his lifetime is so great that it will take another 12 years after I die.”
Domestic entrepreneurs also practice ‘noblesse oblige’
Lee Soo-young, chairman of Light Source Industry (right), held a development fund donation agreement ceremony at KAIST Daejeon headquarters in July 2020 and announced that he would establish the ‘Lee Soo-young Science Education Foundation’ by donating 67.6 billion won worth of real estate. [사진=연합뉴스]
Even in Korea, there are people who try to use money as fertilizer to bear fruit in society. In 2020, Lee Soo-young, Chairman of Light Source Industry, generously donated 67.6 billion won of the wealth he had accumulated throughout his life to KAIST, saying, “Please nurture Nobel Prize-winning talent.” This is the largest donation since the opening of KAIST.
At the time, Chairman Lee said, “I hope that this donation will be used meaningfully to achieve outstanding achievements that no other university has been able to achieve and raise the name of the Republic of Korea to the world.”
Previously, Chairman Lee appeared on tvN’s entertainment show ‘You Quiz on the Block’ in September of the same year and said, “After listening to former KAIST President Seo Nam-pyo’s speech, he talked about ‘the need for scientists in our country, scientific development and national power,’ and it shook my heart.” He also revealed the reason for his donation, saying, “Japan has many Nobel Prize winners, but we have not produced one yet.”
The late Jong-Hwan Lee, former Chairman of Samyounghak Group [사진=관정이종환교육재단]
“I may not be able to make money like an angel, but I will spend it like an angel.”
With this philosophy, the late Lee Jong-hwan, former chairman of Samyoung Academic Group, established a scholarship foundation in June 2000 and provided a total of 270 billion won in scholarships to 12,000 scholarship students over the past 23 years.
Former Chairman Lee, who founded Samyounghak Industrial Company in 1958 and developed it into Samyounghak Group with over 10 companies as affiliates, revealed the reason for the scholarship project in his 2008 autobiography, ‘The Right Way.’
He said, “Ordinary people may call me a fool. That’s just the story of people who don’t know the joy of giving.” He continued, “They say that life is ’empty delivery and empty collection.’ But that doesn’t simply mean ‘come empty-handed and leave empty-handed.’ “I interpreted it to mean, ‘Come empty-handed, fill your hands, then leave empty-handed.’ I am putting that into practice,” he wrote.
Former Chairman Lee founded Samyounghak Industrial Co., Ltd., which makes plastic buckets, etc., in 1958 and developed it into Samyounghak Group, which has about 10 companies, including Samyoung Heavy Industries, as affiliates. Former Chairman Lee was also named as ‘Asia’s Donation King’ by Forbes, an American economic magazine.
Founder Kim Bong-jin (right) and his wife Seol Bomi. [사진=우아한형제들]
Self-made venture founders are also practicing ‘noblesse oblige’. In 2021, following Kakao founder Kim Beom-soo, Woowa Brothers (Baedal Minjok) Chairman Kim Bong-jin also announced his intention to return half of his wealth to society. At the time, half of the value of his shares in Woowa Brothers and Woowa DH Asia was estimated at approximately 1.3 trillion won.
Just as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett previously considered Finney’s donation activities as ‘role models,’ Chairman Kim also explained that he was inspired by the two.
In his donation pledge with the non-profit organization The Giving Pledge, Chairman Kim said, “10 years ago, when I was running a small company with less than 20 employees at the beginning, I read articles by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett and realized that if I was successful, I would like to declare The Giving Pledge. “I have vaguely dreamed about this idea, but I am very touched to make the declaration today,” he said, adding, “I think that promising to donate 10 billion won in 2017 and keeping it was the best decision of my life so far, and now I am deciding to give back even more.” revealed.
Kakao founder Kim Beom-soo, chairman of the board of directors, also announced in the same year that he would return half of his wealth to solving social problems. Considering the value of assets held by Chairman Kim at the time, the donation amount amounted to about 5 trillion won.
2023-10-15 09:08:48
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