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| Building Your Family's 100 Year Plan: The Series |
100 Year Plan Part III: Give, and We Shall Receive
Brett Anderson
02/02/2004
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| Philanthropy unites us
across the distance of time
to future generations. |
Though some families consciously eschew any type of philanthropy, its relative ubiquity among affluent families (even the Vanderbilts engaged in some charitable giving) has prompted some thinkers to argue that it constitutes a form of social selection, whereby those in possession of significant capital preserve their privileges by establishiing and funding public institutions and services. Yet, while this social symbiosis may have some basis in fact, the more compelling motivation is the sense of meaning we derive from giving. Philanthropy not only instills in each of us an active, day-to-day connection to values and ideals that transcend our own personal goals and concerns, but it unites us across the distance of time to future generations of family members, strangers to us now, in the very human enterprise of powering the great engine of civilization.
Illustrations by Jonathan Barkat
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