|
|
 |
|
| Building Your Family's 100 Year Plan: The Series |
100 Year Plan Part III: The Good We Do
Daniel Gross
02/02/2004
|
Instead, today literally dozens of Rockefeller family members—virtually all of independent means—are involved in a dizzying array of nonprofit and philanthropic efforts, many having to do with the environment, education and social welfare. Starting in 1958, the first members of the fourth generation—this time daughters, as well as sons—joined the board of RBF, which now has assets of about $620 million. Today, the chairman of RBF is Steven C. Rockefeller, the son of Nelson, while David Rockefeller’s daughter, Neva, serves as vice chairman.
The Rockefeller family business, Standard Oil, has long since passed into the hands of other investors, as the first John D. Rockefeller likely wished. So, too, has the Rockefeller Foundation, which has $2.6 billion in assets and not a single Rockefeller on its Board of Trustees. This neatly encapsulates the multigenerational approach Rockefeller formulated a century ago: Create institutions that can stand on their own two feet, and that continue to serve long after formal family control ceases.The Jeans Genes:
Levi Strauss
Historians—especially those with a tendency to psychologize—have frequently cast John D. Rockefeller’s philanthropic undertakings as expiation for the ruthless—and occasionally illegal—means through which he amassed his fortune. Be this as it may, some families have nevertheless found ways of harmonizing business and philanthropic efforts.
When it went public in 1971, Levi Strauss & Co.—at the time the world’s largest apparel maker—included some unorthodox language in its prospectus: "The company’s social responsibilities have for many years been a matter of strong conviction on the part of its management." Indeed, over the past 150 years, the five generations of the family who have controlled Levi Strauss have viewed their business and philanthropy as complementary activities.
Among the Haases, giving has been in the genes—and in the jeans—for longer than a century. Levi Strauss, a German-Jewish immigrant, arrived in gold-rush era San Francisco in 1853. In 1866, the dry-goods merchant built his first store, whose main product came to be sturdy, riveted jeans. By the late 1880s, the childless bachelor began to bring his four nephews—all with the last name of Stern—into the business, which they took over entirely when he died in 1902.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
