

“I was on my way to New York to make the speech,” Turner recalled to me. “I just thought, what am I going to say?”




Turner's gift helped change that culture, reviving the tradition of great philanthropists such as Rockefeller and Carnegie. Turner publicly began needling other billionaires — including Bill Gates and Warren Buffett — to be more generous. That was a breach of etiquette, but it worked.

“It's a starting point for me of this modern era of high-profile big public giving,” reflected Matthew Bishop, co-author of “Philanthrocapitalism,” a terrific book about how the business world is reshaping philanthropy. “He called on others to step up, which did have a crystallizing effect on others. It allowed journalists and others who were talking to Bill Gates to say: 'Why aren't you giving more?'” Then they tormented Buffett with the same question.






Of course, not everybody has gotten the memo. Take Donald Trump, who has contributed his name to a foundation but little more. An investigation by The Smoking Gun website described him as possibly “the least charitable billionaire in the United States,” for he apparently gave the foundation just $3.7 million — over 20 years. Trump, who has said he is worth $7 billion, is not even the largest contributor to his own foundation.

(A spokesman for Trump suggested that it would be “totally incorrect” to characterize him as uncharitable, saying that he has also donated land in upstate New York for public parks and “millions of dollars” to other causes.)

Turner isn't shy about encouraging others to jump on board. When I asked if he had any advice for my readers, he grew particularly animated: “You don't have to have any money to make a difference; you can pick up trash walking down the street, and I do that all the time,” he said. “You can volunteer your time. You can be a big brother or a big sister.”

It makes me a little squeamish to extol a billionaire, and the working poor in America are often more generous in percentage terms (and in volunteering) than those far better off.


If you're still reading, Donald Trump, it's your move.

Nicholas Kristof writes for the New York Times.