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Turning wealth into good works
With unprecedented wealth comes the moral question of what to do with it – and many Americans are choosing to give it to charity.
from the June 11, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
Not-so-rich also generous givers
The generous givers aren't always the very rich. Richard Semmler, a math professor at Northern Virginia Community College, couldn't have gone to college himself without scholarships. Today he's giving away 60 percent of his total income – something he can do "because my mortgage is paid off," he says in an interview. His values led him "to support a local charity to help my community and an international charity to help the planet."
Dr. Semmler teaches a GED course at a Washington, D.C., shelter, where he also pays for 100 meals a month. Since becoming involved with Habitat for Humanity as a volunteer, he's sponsored three locally built houses ($100,000 for the last one), given $15,000 to fix up a house damaged by hurricane Katrina, and annually supports building a home in Tanzania.
"I've seen where families lived before they were selected for a house," he says. "If you earn the minimum wage here in D.C., you can't afford much, and kids shouldn't have to call a living room their bedroom. It's very rewarding to change that."
Giving is by no means the only positive or moral use of wealth, Dr. Schervish emphasizes in an interview. For example, people can start a business and employ people, or provide better health insurance for workers, or take care of a disabled person in their family, he adds.
The dramatic growth in wealth and its potential for philanthropy has grabbed the attention of the financial-services industry, which is scrambling to provide a new kind of advice. Financial firms have engaged Schervish to talk with advisers and high-net-worth clients about the "moral biography of wealth." He's training about 400 advisers on how to ask clients the right questions.
"You're helping people 'excavate' who they are and who they want to be, and your role becomes valuable in helping them close the gap," he says. "I'm teaching a way of understanding life spiritually while talking about financial advisement and how you can add value to your clients while putting money in your pocket."
At a recent Boston College conference for leaders of nonprofits, the managing director of Smith Barney Consulting Group talked about this "changing face of financial services" and his firm's "new alliance" with nonprofits.
Fr. J. Donald Monan, the chancellor of the college, noted that the "sea change in the growth of wealth in American society" means that, for the first time, private wealth is in a position to do things only governments have done in the past. [Editor's note: The original version misidentified Fr. Monan.]
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