Charles Feeney ’56 concluded his 35-year philanthropic career last month the same way he started it — with a $7 million donation to his alma mater, Cornell University.
This gift mirrors a donation of the same size in 1982 — Feeney’s first donation to the University — which launched the Cornell Tradition, a program that awards 500 fellowships each year to Cornell students who “demonstrate significant work experience, a commitment to campus and/or community service and academic achievement,” according to the University.
For example, in 2016, Cornell Tradition fellows helped with fall clean-up at the Cornell Botanic Gardens, participated in an annual service trip to Nicaragua and provided gifts to children in the Tompkins County area as part …show more content…
Navy’s Atlantic fleet. In 1962, he and his then-business partner — Robert Miller ’55 — decided to expand their retail store to international airports in Hong Kong and Honolulu. The tactical move paid off when, two years later, Japan lifted foreign travel restrictions and Japanese tourists flocked to those two cities, leading to massive growth in Feeney’s wealth.
Feeney, who is 85 years old, said he aspires to donate almost all of his wealth before he dies. The Atlantic Philanthropies will close its doors in 2020, consistent with Feeney’s “giving while living” philosophy. As Forbes phrased it in 2012, “Feeney is working double time to die broke.”
For Feeney, the logic behind exhausting his wealth is simple.
“It’s a lot more fun to give while you’re alive, than to give while you’re dead,” he said. “I cannot think of a more personally rewarding and appropriate use of wealth than to give while one is
This gift mirrors a donation of the same size in 1982 — Feeney’s first donation to the University — which launched the Cornell Tradition, a program that awards 500 fellowships each year to Cornell students who “demonstrate significant work experience, a commitment to campus and/or community service and academic achievement,” according to the University.
For example, in 2016, Cornell Tradition fellows helped with fall clean-up at the Cornell Botanic Gardens, participated in an annual service trip to Nicaragua and provided gifts to children in the Tompkins County area as part …show more content…
Navy’s Atlantic fleet. In 1962, he and his then-business partner — Robert Miller ’55 — decided to expand their retail store to international airports in Hong Kong and Honolulu. The tactical move paid off when, two years later, Japan lifted foreign travel restrictions and Japanese tourists flocked to those two cities, leading to massive growth in Feeney’s wealth.
Feeney, who is 85 years old, said he aspires to donate almost all of his wealth before he dies. The Atlantic Philanthropies will close its doors in 2020, consistent with Feeney’s “giving while living” philosophy. As Forbes phrased it in 2012, “Feeney is working double time to die broke.”
For Feeney, the logic behind exhausting his wealth is simple.
“It’s a lot more fun to give while you’re alive, than to give while you’re dead,” he said. “I cannot think of a more personally rewarding and appropriate use of wealth than to give while one is