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Dear Friends and Colleagues of the Atlantic
Philanthropies,
Yesterday, Atlantic founder
Chuck Feeney signed the dissolution papers
for the Atlantic Foundation,
concluding 38 years of global philanthropic work. Many of you have been
an integral part of that work and the communities associated
with that work. I want to recognize this moment with
gratitude for your contributions to advance our shared
values and aspirations.
Concluding 38 Years of Giving While Living
In 1982, Chuck, with support from his family
and advisers, established the Atlantic Foundation, which
would later become known as the Atlantic Philanthropies.
That year, the Foundation, acting anonymously as it would
for the next 15 years, made its first grant of $7 million to
establish the Cornell Tradition Fellows. It was a big bet
in its time, a bet on young people with limited financial
resources and a dedication to serving others.
In 1984, Chuck and his family irrevocably
contributed the entire Feeney interest in the businesses he
launched to the Atlantic Foundation.
As a Bermuda foundation, Chuck and Atlantic’s business colleagues
continued to grow its extensive international subsidiary
businesses for charitable purposes while maintaining the
family’s privacy
and anonymity.
In 1996, as major businesses were sold, grantmaking increased and
anonymity became both a practical and ethical challenge,
Chuck was (voluntarily) unmasked by the New
York Times.
His biographer and his subsequent chronicler at Forbes titled
him, respectively, “The Billionaire Who Wasn’t” and “the
James Bond of Philanthropy.” He became an inspiration for
the Giving Pledge.
In 2002, Chuck and the leadership of the
Atlantic Foundation, made the express decision to invest the
foundation’s entire endowment and close our doors by the end
of 2020.
Over 38 years, in more than 25 countries, with the passionate efforts of
directors and over 300 staff in seven countries, the
Atlantic Philanthropies group dedicated itself and over $8
billion in more than 6,500 grants to support the people and
organizations that would make a difference in the lives of
others.
Chuck is no longer anonymous. But many of you, our grantees
and Atlantic’s staff, who advanced these efforts have
labored in anonymity or with little public recognition.
Chuck would say you and
they are the heroes.
Chuck wanted wealth to be deployed soon, to
make a difference soon, to encourage others to commit their
wealth to help others soon.
Almost ten years ago, Chuck wrote to Bill Gates:
“I also want now to add my own personal
challenge and encouragement for Giving Pledge donors to
fully engage in sustained philanthropic efforts during their
lifetimes. I cannot think of a more personally rewarding and
appropriate use of wealth than to give while one is
living—to personally devote oneself to meaningful efforts to
improve the human condition.
More importantly, today’s needs are so great and varied that intelligent
philanthropic support and positive interventions can have
greater value and impact today than if they are delayed when
the needs are greater.
I urge those who are taking up the Giving Pledge example to
invest substantially in philanthropic causes soon and not
postpone their giving or personal engagement.”
Shortly after launching the Giving Pledge,
Warren Buffet said
“Chuck has set an example . . . . [He] is my hero and Bill Gates’
hero. He should be everybody’s hero.” In writing about the
venture’s financial trajectory, Steve Bertoni, Forbes magazine’s
chronicler of Chuck’s work, coined the term for Atlantic’s
ultimate goal:
“Zero
is the hero.”
The
Need is Now. Why Wait?
Following Chuck’s lead and Giving
While Living philosophy, we have sought to make a
lasting impact but with a sense of urgency driven by a
spend-to-impact rather than spend-to-budget approach. Why
wait to address critical needs in any arena – health, social
cohesion, the environment, aging populations, early
childhood development, education, knowledge and innovation,
democracy, human rights? Do we need to wait for the next
pandemic to strengthen immunology or public health data,
policies and systems? Do we need to delay investments in
effective environmental policies, technologies and practices
until future climate disasters? Should we wait for the next
social upheavals before addressing longstanding structural
inequities and racial, gender
and socio-economic disparities?
‘It Always Comes Down to People’
We have come to the end of Atlantic’s life –
to zero – as Chuck intended.
It is not the end of the efforts and aspirations to improve
the lives of others. Atlantic’s grantees, of which there
are over 2,500, together with our funding partners and the
people who led and populated their respective efforts, have
their own legacies and ripples, even waves, of continuing
influence
and impact.
We have concluded our grantmaking by supporting a global community of Atlantic
Fellows – the current and next generations of leaders
dedicated to accelerating fairer, healthier and more
inclusive societies.
It is our final big bet, a more than $740 million
investment to advance the quest for our aspirations beyond
the foundation’s existence.
“In the end,” as Chuck has said, echoing his first
big bet in the Cornell Tradition, “it always comes down to
people.”
The Atlantic Fellows are making big plans; aiming high in
hope and work. We have no doubt that they, like so many of
our grantees,
“are going to do things that would stagger us.”
It has been an unparalleled privilege for all
of us associated with Chuck and Atlantic to have
participated in this endeavor. We have had the opportunity
to work with and guide financial and other support to the
many exceptionally skilled and dedicated people who have
selflessly strived for and achieved improvements in the
human condition. We have had the privilege of holding
fascinating jobs with wonderful colleagues.
‘We Are Who We Are Because of Others’
We ask that you celebrate and support what our grantee
colleagues have achieved and are working to achieve.
Celebrate and pursue the possibilities to improve things as
they are. Recognize the power and duty of privilege to
respond intelligently, with empathy and with some sense of
urgency to the myriad of human needs. Take note that change
for the better is not only possible, it is our shared human
imperative.
The effort is worthy and deeply satisfying and besides, as
Chuck says, “Giving while living is more fun than giving
while dead.”
Atlantic’s grantees, their work and our
experience and insights can be further explored on the Atlantic
Philanthropies’ website, which will remain active until
at least 2025, and in our
archives at Cornell University.
We hope you might find something there of interest and value
and application in your work.
Thank You
We are who we are because of others.
On behalf of Chuck Feeney and the team at Atlantic Philanthropies,
thank you for your work and support and for accompanying us
on this journey. |