Philanthropy
Advised to move to Monaco after the sale of Sports Division, Hunter wanted to raise his family in his homeland. With a growing realisation that making money was, as he told Andrew Marr in a 2005 BBC interview, "only half of the equation;" and inspired by his hero Andrew Carnegie, whose book "The Gospel of Wealth" central premise he often quotes:
| “ | a man who dies rich, dies disgraced. | ” |
Hunter with his wife resultantly established The Hunter Foundation in 1998 with a £10million cheque as a tax management vehicle. After discussions with Vartan Gregorian, head of the Carnegie Foundation in New York, Hunter set a cause and a method which has resulted in the foundation donating millions to supporting educational and entrepreneurial projects in Scotland.
In 2001, Hunter was interviewed for the STV programme Rich, Gifted and Scots discussing his wealth, influences and philanthropy. Hunter coined the term "venture philanthropy" – using his investment pledges to leverage more cash from others to invest with him and becoming involved in the strategic delivery of the initiatives he backed. This ensured he could make a bigger impact with his money.
His donations and beneficial projects have included:
- £6m to the Band Aid appeal
- £1m to support the Make Poverty History campaign
- Supported the Live 8 concerts.
- £100,000 in a £500,000 joint project with the Scottish Executive.
- £5m donation to establish the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship at the University of Strathclyde
- £1 million to the Children in Need charity appeal telethon
- £1 million to the Comic Relief charity appeal. Matched the £1 million raised during Comic Relief Does The Apprentice
- US$10–25 million to the William J. Clinton Foundation.
- Backed the Entrepreneurial Spark start-up accelerator, hosting their Ayrshire 'hatchery' in his Olympic Park building.
Scotland's former first minister, Jack McConnell, who works for African focused Clinton Hunter Development Initiative, has said of Hunter:
| “ | His philanthropic work and the creative way that he has thrown himself into that has been one of the most significant drivers for change in Scotland in the last decade. The work his foundation does is all about being a catalyst for change, not a substitute and not a general giveaway but a genuine approach to change the way things are done. | ” |
In July 2007 in interview with Jeremy Paxman on BBC Two's "Newsnight" programme, it was reported that Hunter had pledged to donate a further £1 billion to charity.
Read more about this topic: Tom Hunter
Famous quotes containing the word philanthropy:
“I shall not be forward to think him mistaken in his method who quickest succeeds to liberate the slave. I speak for the slave when I say that I prefer the philanthropy of Captain Brown to that philanthropy which neither shoots me nor liberates me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Almost every man we meet requires some civility,—requires to be humored; he has some fame, some talent, some whim of religion or philanthropy in his head that is not to be questioned, and which spoils all conversation with him. But a friend is a sane man who exercises not my ingenuity, but me.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“... the hey-day of a woman’s life is on the shady side of fifty, when the vital forces heretofore expended in other ways are garnered in the brain, when their thoughts and sentiments flow out in broader channels, when philanthropy takes the place of family selfishness, and when from the depths of poverty and suffering the wail of humanity grows as pathetic to their ears as once was the cry of their own children.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)