I enjoy giving.
Millions of people have purchased New Hampshire Lottery tickets with the hope of becoming financially independent. I am among them.
We know that the odds of winning a lottery are ridiculously high. We play because we know that someone will eventually get lucky and win. That is a dilemma that I often think about. What would I do with millions of dollars in winnings if I won Powerball?
I am in my eighties and probably won’t live long enough to spend much of it. I would pay off my car loan, move into a larger apartment, make room for a new Kinetic Blue C8 Corvette and treat all of my friends, family and a few strangers to a fabulous weekend party with an open bar at the best resort in New Hampshire.
The remainder of the winnings I would gift to New Hampshire charities. I would do it quickly, quietly and anonymously. That is a promise that you can take to the bank.
This brings me to the subject of the art of gifting.
A gift is something given voluntarily, without the prospect of repayment, return or compensation. If any of those conditions cannot be met, then it is not a gift.
There are many different types of gifts. The gifts of life, blood, justice, love, talent, mercy, sacrifice and gab are among them. Money is a universal medium for gifting, and generous monetary gifts are always welcome where there is need.
Some benefactors insist that they be recognized for their philanthropy. Others take a more numinous approach to gifting and do it anonymously.
On July 19, an anonymous donor gifted Children’s Hospital Los Angeles $25 million, the largest gift in the history of that hospital. There are angels in Los Angeles.
The 350 PBS public television and NPR public radio stations in the United States are private, nonprofit corporations. They rely on gifts, grants and subsidies from corporate sponsors, individuals (36%) and a federal agency, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (PBS 7%, NPR 1%), to provide quality educational experiences for young children and news, documentaries and memorable entertainment for adult audiences.
It is a sad state of affairs when PBS stations have to be reduced to constantly begging for gifts to stay on the air.
One of the greatest gifts a community can give its citizens is the gift of literacy. Literacy includes but is not limited to the ability to read and write. With literacy comes freedom. It gives people the opportunity to become fluent in many intellectual pursuits, including understanding and comprehending developing technologies, discovering the joy of independent thought, the ability to think critically and to help develop group cohesiveness that encourages self-governance.
According to worldatlas.com, in its list of 26 countries with the highest literacy rates, Finland, Norway and Cuba all enjoy 100% literacy.
The current New Hampshire literacy rate is 91.9% for high school graduates. The U.S. literacy rate comes in at 86%, ranking us No. 125 among 197 nations, behind Oman and Burundi. A majority of Americans read at the seventh- to eighth-grade level.
If giving is primarily motivated by the prospect of a tax deduction, then that clearly is not a gift. It is a shallow and cynical use of the tax code.
An example of unusual charity and benevolence was a gift from Dr. Jonas Salk: His polio vaccine. Millions of people have been spared the dreadful effects of polio because of the kindness and generosity of this man. He gave his vaccine as a gift to mankind and asked nothing in return. Giving away money is easy. Giving away genius and talent are special gifts.
There are other unique expressions of gifting.
A number of wealthy families have chosen to disinherit their children and grandchildren from the family fortune. Instead, they are gifting their large fortunes to charity.
They believe that they have given their children all of the privileges and advantages that wealth can offer, including the best educations. It is now their turn to earn their own fortunes.
Government officials, elected or appointed, should be held to higher moral standards than ordinary citizens. They should lead by example.
One New Hampshire politician disagreed with that. I am reminded of an incident in 2005 when a member of a wealthy, influential and well-respected New Hampshire political family, Judd Gregg, won Powerball to the tune of $853,000. He was also a sitting U.S. senator and the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. Quoted by reporters at a press conference regarding his good luck, the senator said, “Every American believes in good luck and I am no different than anyone else.” I beg to differ. He was very different. A more noble and magnanimous gesture would have been to gift all of those serendipitous gambling winnings to New Hampshire charities. That gift would have led to he and his family being warmly remembered long after they are gone. You cannot unring a bell.
Biblical teachings suggest “It is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich man get into the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24).
Tithing and offerings are generally reserved to serve religious communities. Neither of them qualify as gifts. A gift has no expectation of a return. Religious tithing and offerings have an expectation attached: Redemption.
An unhappy chapter in gift giving was the industrialist Andrew Carnegie. He exploited thousands of his workers to make his fortune. To assuage his guilt later in his life, he gifted millions of dollars to build public libraries and buildings across America.
Gifts tainted with guilt are poor gifts indeed.
There is one notable exception to gifts given with guilt: Alfred P. Nobel.
Nobel was a Swedish chemist, successful businessman and philanthropist. He discovered dynamite (a reference to the Greek word for “power”) along with gelignite and ballistite. He invented the blasting cap and had a synthetic element named after him, nobelium. When he realized that he might be remembered only as a merchant of death because of the magnitude of the death and destruction that his discoveries had caused, he tried to atone for it by establishing the Nobel Prizes.
He bequeathed his fortune to the Nobel Foundation. It currently has over $560 million in assets to fund the prizes, awarded in chemistry, physics, medicine, literature and peace. Each prize medal is coated with gold and worth about $10,000. The average cash value of each prize amounts to about $1.1 million.
By any measurement of gifting and philanthropy, Nobel’s gifts are among the greatest.
I often meet visitors from distant parts of America who comment, when meeting New Hampshire folk for the first time, that we are an aloof, cold, cynical and incurious people.
That may have something to do with our heritage. Southern Americans are famous for “Southern hospitality.” Western Americans are noted for their “pioneering spirit.” We are famous for thrift, suspicious of pride, inherently distrustful of government and politicians, and smug about personal responsibility.
We are also a generous people. We give freely of time, effort and money when there is need. We care about our neighbors and strangers.
Remember that the next time you see a homeless person.
The old adage that “You can’t take it with you” is so true. There are no luggage racks in a funeral hearse.
I end where I began. I enjoy giving.
(Jim Baer lives in Concord.)