End of the line for third-level’s pot of gold
He prefers anonymity over wealth. But he is Ireland’s greatest single benefactor, though his fund comes to an end in 2020, writes Kyran Fitzgerald
HE IS Ireland’s greatest single benefactor, a US-born ex-GI who opted for anonymity over fame and prefers to use public transport.
Chuck Feeney, the grandson of an immigrant from Fermanagh, did not even visit this island until well into adulthood yet through his charitable foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, he is believed to have given away in excess of €1bn to good causes in Ireland, helping to trigger a transformation in the funding of third-level education in the process.
This week, Atlantic Philanthropies confirmed it would make its last grant awards by the end of 2016, after which it will make its final payments and monitor ongoing grants before the foundation finally closes in 2020.
The move is not unexpected. In fact, it has been signalled for some time. Nevertheless, the prospect of the disappearance of such a major source of funding presents a major challenge to the thousands of organisations which have benefited from its largesse.
The foundation has given away more than $6bn (€5bn) worldwide since its establishment in 1982, without any of the fanfare and trumpeting that usually accompanies such events.
It has given over €100m alone to the University of Limerick since Feeney first encountered its founder, Ed Walsh, in the 80s.
Other local institutions have benefited, including the Milford Care Centre and Mary Immaculate College.
They say you should teach a man to fish rather than simply hand him over some. This principle has certainly been adhered to in the case of Atlantic, which has recruited top-drawer people to act as executives in beneficiary countries.
The foundation claims to have effected a transformation in key universities across Ireland, the US, and South Africa.
It acted as a catalyst in the establishment of the programme of investment in third-level institutions in Ireland.
Feeney and his then country manager, John Healy, were reputedly taken aback at the low level of ongoing investment in infrastructure, particularly IT, in Irish colleges. As Feeney’s biographer, Conor O’Clery, has written, Healy, in effect, prodded the government establishment into action in the late 1990s with an offer of matching funding.
Feeney first became interested in the country after he made a number of business trips here in the 1970s. According to a profile in the Irish Voice, he was prompted to get more deeply involved following the Enniskillen bombing in 1987. He came across an Irish-American partnership which the former Fine Gael TD for Donegal North East, Paddy Harte, founded. Harte has worked closely for many years on cross-border reconciliation.
The partnership was run by John Healy — he went on to work for Atlantic, eventually becoming CE0.
Feeney, too, became interested in reconciliation, becoming a key member of the Americans for a New Irish Agenda. The group travelled to the North many times, encouraging republicans to lay down their arms. Feeney later funded an office for Sinn Féin in Washington, DC, in the early to mid-1990s.
Ironically, the young Chuck began his career in the military, as a US Air Force radio operator during the Korean war. He returned home to study at Cornell, an Ivy League University in New York, on a GI scholarship. This barely covered his tuition. To finance his stay, he sold sandwiches.
He used the remainder of his grant to fund studies at Grenoble University in France, where he ran a summer camp for children of people stationed with the US fleet. He ran into an old Cornell friend, Robert Miller, and the pair started selling goods such as perfume, tape recorders, and transistor radios to sailors.
In 1960, they set up a company called DFS, selling duty free. Their first shop was in Honolulu and they expanded across Asia. DFS evolved into a global retail giant.
In 1996, DFS was acquired by the French luxury goods maker LVMH, (Louis Vuitton) for $1.63bn. Sixteen years earlier, Feeney handed his 38.75% interest in the company to his new foundation — by the late 90s, it was worth over $3bn.
Feeney incorporated Atlantic Philanthropies in Bermuda in order to maintain his anonymity. However, he was outed in 1997 when his partner began legal proceedings arising out of the sale to LVMH.
Feeney belongs to a long line of US philanthropists — the idea of organised giving really took hold during and after the American Civil War. A soaring economy produced mega-rich individuals such as Andrew Carnegie, tough businessmen with a strong ethical streak linked to religious upbringing.
Harvard University raised $500 in its first fundraising drive in 1643. Today, its endowment is worth over $30bn. Around 1900, charitable giving enjoyed a heyday with the Rockefeller, Mellon, and Ford families all setting up foundations. In recent years, while Wall Street has become an emblem for greed and shame, a strong movement has grown up among mega-capitalists with a social conscience. Its key figures are Warren Buffett, Bill Gates Snr and his son Bill, founder of Microsoft, and wife Melinda.
As Buffett put it recently, “a rising tide lifts all yachts”. The Bill & Melinda Gates foundation is worth $35bn, the largest in the world. As a “limited life foundation”, it, too, will eventually liquidate once the money has been spent.
Buffett is also in the process of giving away all his wealth.
Feeney arguably got there first. Some of his methods have been ahead of their time. The approach of Atlantic Philanthropies is strategic. It supports activities which have the potential to be groundbreaking.
According to former TCD Provost Tom Mitchell the Feeney-backed programme of investment in third-level institutions “revolutionised research in Ireland”, targeting key areas such as ageing, children, population health, reconciliation, and human rights.
It has pushed for government investment in early-stage intervention programmes and is keen on promoting intensive evaluation of government programmes, funding a Centre of Effective Services.
It has funded gay organisations and has strayed into controversy with its backing for the Centre for Public Inquiry. Atlantic withdrew its backing after the centre was condemned in the Dáil by Michael McDowell, the then justice minister.
Subsequent events proved the need for a studiously, politically non-aligned NGO aiming to focus on scandal within, or associated with government.
Atlantic is pulling in its horns at a time when NGOs in Ireland are under particular pressure. As consultants McKinsey pointed out in a 2010 report, Ireland’s wealthy individuals and corporates are not great donors by international standards. At the same time, Irish charities have proliferated and lack transparency, despite passage of the 2009 Charities Act.
The big question remains: Will there be anyone of similar calibre, in this country or across the Irish diaspora, ready to step into the huge boots of Feeney and Atlantic Philanthropies as the decade draws to a close?
* Who: Chuck Feeney, founder, Atlantic Philanthropies.
* Born: 1931. New Jersey.
* Education: Cornell University; College of Catering. Grenoble University — political science.
* Career: US Air force — early 1950s. Entrepreneur.
* 1960: Co-founder of Duty-Free Services (DFS).
* 1982: Established Atlantic Philanthropies,
* 1996: Sale of DFS to LVMH.
* Family: Married twice.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
