We must nurture a culture of philanthropy

Student who got Form One scholarships during the 12th annual Regional Education and Leadership Congress for Wings to Fly and Elimu Scholarship Beneficiaries at Pangani Girls High School grounds. [File, Standard]

Few people except in India had ever heard of Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Group until his death last week. Tata had built a global conglomerate nearly in every sector – be it aviation, motor cars, jewelry, chemicals, steel, power, tourism among many others.

To man these businesses, Tata has a employed over a million employees around the world. Yet, that is not half the story; the juicy part is that Tata lived very modestly, no showing off huge mansions, yachts and private jets.

Compare him to Mukesh Ambani, another Indian billionaire who built his residence at a cost of Sh260 billion!. Or even with Elon Musk who’s throwing away billions of dollars searching for fool’s gold – taking man to Mars.

The passing of this great entrepreneur brought to the fore one of the legacies that will outlive him: Ratan Tata was the top philanthrope in the world, eclipsing even Bill Gates by far. At over US$100 billion, his charity is the biggest, followed by Bill Gates Foundation at US$79 billion. This man decided to use his wealth for a good cause, and he will be remembered for it.

I was recently watching a short video clip on Gates, the Microsoft founder, where he was asked what the best thing is about being a billionaire. It is about using your money to do good, he said. That for me encapsulates what philanthropy should be, what becoming rich should be. Make your money if you can, spend what you can wisely and the rest, help the needy.

Gates and a couple of other fellow billionaires have agreed to give over 95 percent of their wealth to charity, an amount that by any standards is quite staggering. This is money that will touch a lot of lives.

Let’s cast a cursory glance at the Gates Foundation. Last year, the foundation gave US$7.7 billion dollars (Sh1 trillion) and pledged to increase this donation to 8.6 billion this year. The foundation has dished out almost US$ 80 billion since it was started.

Warren Buffet, a fellow billionaire, gave the foundation US$43 billion to support its philanthropic activities. The impact has been felt worldwide, especially in poor countries where the money has gone into health, agriculture, technology, eradicating malaria among others. Over 32 million lives have been saved because of the foundation’s work, something you can’t put a value on.

Harvard, one of the top universities in the world, survives to a large extent on endowments which now stand at US$50.7 billion.

Let’s come to Kenya and see how we are doing in terms of philanthropy. At the corporate level, we have seen very successful foundations that have made a huge impact on the lives of Kenyans. Top of mind is the foundations for KCB, Safaricom and Equity.

Equity and Mastercard’s “Wings to Fly” charity work has taken thousands or children from poor families and paid for them up to the tertiary level, including the top universities in the world. In my opinion, this foundation has made a major impact on children who would otherwise have remained miserably poor and illiterate further entrenching poverty in the community. But they have been given a lifeline that has not only flung them out of the poverty cycle but has also pulled along their families giving them renewed hope.

At the personal level however, I haven’t heard of any of our filthy rich people pledge a couple of million dollars of their wealth to a cause. Perhaps they are there but I haven’t heard of them.

The billionaires we have – some marinated in eccentricity and others who love the fast life – like showing off their latest toys, be it a chopper or a Bentley. True, they deserve all that, especially if they worked hard for it. But they should salve their conscience every so often by being seen to do good.

-The writer is a communications consultant and journalist