Generous inclinations: while some executives are being handcuffed and taken to prison cells for lining their own pockets with great gobs of cash, others are sharing the wealth.

Foundation Center is a New York-based institute that tracks corporate giving. It estimates that almost 2,600 corporate foundations in the U.S. gave away a record $3.6 billion in 2005. That's about six percent more than the previous year. Total corporate giving, including direct gifts that don't go through a foundation, amounted to about $13.8 billion, a whopping 22.5% increase over 2004.

One recent event alone raised billions of dollars.

In September 2006, in New York, political, corporate, and nonprofit leaders pledged more than $7 billion to tackle global problems. This happened as part of a conference organized by former U.S. President Bill Clinton. The Clinton Global Initiative drew about 1,000 world leaders, business executives, charity officials, and a few celebrities. Participants make a commitment to fight such social ills around the world as poverty, limited access to health care, energy and climate change, and religious strife and ethnic conflict.

The largest of the 215 promises this year came from British entrepreneur Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin corporate conglomerate. He said he would dedicate an estimated $3 billion over 10 years to curb climate change by developing alternative energy sources.

This was the second year of Mr. Clinton's initiative and only those who kept their promises made in 2005 were invited back. Any who failed to meet their commitments but tried to register anyway had their $15,000 fee returned.

(The 22-city fundraising tour also raised $20 million during its stop in Toronto. The starstudded event attracted about 1,000 people who paid up to $200,000 per table to attend.)

Some who criticize the idea of corporate philanthropy say it's wrong for public companies to give away money that really belongs to the people who invest in the company. They say that charity with other people's money is not philanthropy at all. On the other side, some investors may deliberately choose to back philanthropic companies.

But, few would quibble with the rationale of wealthy corporate individuals who give away their own money.

Some wealthy Canadians have donated land, or money to buy land, for the benefit of all Canadians.

On Canada's birthday in 2006, for example, Ray Van Steinburg, a wealthy B.C. rancher, presented the country with a gift. Mr. Van Steinburg gave the development rights to a parcel of beautiful rolling grassland near Cranbrook, B.C. to the Nature Conservancy of Canada. NCC is a non-profit environmental organization that protects ecologically valuable land. It now has control over about five and a quarter square kilometres of the province's grasslands. This is land that property developers drool over as potential sites for resorts and vacation homes. Mr. Van Steinburg turned down many multi-million dollar offers from developers; he wanted to protect the area for future generations of Canadians.

Others contribute huge sums of money to medical causes.

Construction millionaire Larry Tanenbaum gave $25 million to Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital in June 2006 to support biomedical research.

A month earlier gold baron Peter Munk gave $37 million to Toronto General Hospital, the largest donation ever to a Canadian hospital, to support heart research.

Quebec businessman Andre Chagnon set up Canada's largest charitable foundation in 2001 to fight child poverty in Quebec. Mr. Chagnon and his wife put $1.4 billion into the Lucie and Andre Chagnon Foundation with the aim of reducing the rate of child poverty in Quebec to 10 percent over the next 20 years, from about 25 percent now. Mr. Chagnon, who grew up during the Great Depression, experienced hardship as a child. He expects the Foundation will be spending about $60 million a year by 2007 on programs to alleviate the problem.

And, who can argue over the generosity of Bill and Melinda Gates (Microsoft) who give away billions of dollars to help improve the lives of people around the world? They do it through their $30 billion foundation, established in 2000 to help boost health and education, and reduce poverty among the world's disadvantaged people.

Billionaire businessman, Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway) announced in June 2006 that he would add more than $30 billion of his fortune to the Gates Foundation (more than doubling its assets), and nearly $7 billion more to foundations held by other Buffett family members.

As Mr. Buffett sees it,: "I personally think that society is responsible for a very significant percentage of what I've earned. If you stick me down in the middle of Bangladesh or Peru or someplace, you find out how much this talent is going to produce in the wrong kind of soil ... I work in a market system that happens to reward what I do very well--disproportionately well. Mike Tyson, too. If you can knock a guy out in 10 seconds and earn $10 million for it, this world will pay a lot for that. If you can bat .360, this world will pay a lot for that. If you're a marvelous teacher, this world won't pay a lot for it. If you are a terrific nurse, this world will not pay a lot for it. Now, am I going to try to come up with some comparable worth system that somehow (re)distributes that. No, I don't think you can do that. But, I do think that when you're treated enormously well by this market system, where in effect the market system showers the ability to buy goods and services on you because of some peculiar talent--maybe your adenoids are a certain way, so you can sing and everybody will pay you enormous sums to be on television or whatever--I think society has a big claim on that."

One of Canada's philanthropists is Mike Lazarick's (left), cofounder of Research In Motion, home of the BlackBerry. Mr. Lazaridis has a keen interest in fundamental physics. So he donated $100 million toward founding the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in 2000 in Waterloo, Ontario (where RIM is located). Dozens of scientists from around the world spend their days at the Institute grappling with the complex workings of the universe. The Economist recently quoted Mr. Lazaridis as saying, "This is a cornerstone of a country's competitiveness. You can never invest too much in basic research." The magazine in turn described this approach as "a refreshingly far-sighted view from a business leader. "Mr. Lazaridis donated a further $50 million in 2004 and 2005 to found the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo. In October 2006, the Canadian government made him an Officer of the Order of Canada, the second highest rank in the three-tier Order of Canada. To receive the medal, a Canadian must show a lifetime of achievement while serving Canada and humanity as a whole.

American industrialist Andrew Carnegie (he created U.S. Steel) distributed 90 percent of his vast fortune to benevolent causes by the end of his life. He believed that "the man who dies rich, dies disgraced. "He gave away most of his wealth to fund the establishment of many libraries, schools, and universities in Scotland, America, and worldwide. In total Mr. Carnegie funded about 3,000 libraries, located in every U.S. state except Alaska, Delaware, and Rhode Island. He also built libraries in Canada and in Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, the West Indies, and Fiji. Among his many accomplishments, he built Carnegie Hall in New York City in 1890. Noted for its acoustics as well as architecture and historical value, the hall is one of the most famous venues for classical and popular music in the United States. By the standards of his time, Andrew Carnegie was not a particularly ruthless man. However, he enjoyed a lavish lifestyle while many of his workers lived in poverty. "Maybe with the giving away of his money," commented biographer Joseph Wall, "he would justify what he had done to get that money."

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES:

1. Imagine Canada was launched in January 2005 by the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy and the Coalition of National Voluntary Organizations. With more than 100 "Caring Company" members, Imagine Canada says one of its aims is to encourage corporations to partner with charitable and nonprofit organizations to build better communities. And, it adds that hundreds of companies across the country are responding to its challenge to give at least one percent of their pre-tax profits to charity. Profile some of the companies that belong to the group.

2. Some ask whether grand philanthropic gestures make it possible for government to shed its responsibilities for social program funding. On the other hand, lower government involvement in social welfare means lower taxes and more corporate profit, which can then be put into social funding. Of course, corporate donations are purely voluntary and can be withdrawn at any time leaving programs stranded. Discuss whether or not you think social programs should be funded through government resources or corporate or private donations.

Website

Imagine Canada--http:// www.imaginecanada.ca

FACT FILE

One magazine article on Warren Buffett's massive contribution to the (Melinda and Bill) Gates Foundation was titled Billanthropy.

FACT FILE

Warren Buffett describes rich people who inherit their wealth as "members of the lucky-sperm club."

RELATED ARTICLE: A helping hand.

Joseph Atkinson, Canadian newspaper publisher and activist once said, "Great wealth is not earned. There are many words to describe the process but earned is not one of them."

Mr. Atkinson ran The Toronto Star from 1899 until his death in 1948 at the age of 82. He believed in a just, equitable, safe, and healthy society for all citizens, whatever their circumstances. He left his estate To The Atkinson Charitable Foundation, which was established in 1942, to ensure that his ideals would continue.

The Foundation has given more than $55 million in the areas of health, social welfare, economic justice, education, and culture since its inception.