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Library of Congress / Bain News Service; Gap Corporate Communications; The Communications; Gap Corporate Service; / Bain News Congress of Library Archief Fotocollectie / Nationaal Museum; CC-BY-SA Air & Space Intrepid Sea, istockphoto.com Center; History Archief; San Diego Nationaal Anefo 14 PHILANTHROPY By Karl Zinsmeister hilanthropy is a very big part of what makes voluntarism deserve a worthy standard reference. America America. So we created an entirely new work. It helps readers P Start with the brute numbers: Our nonprofit sec- understand the potency of philanthropic institutions, tor now employs 11 percent of the U.S. workforce. It explains their influence on our daily lives, and profiles will contribute around 6 percent of GDP in 2015 (up some of the fascinating men and women who have from 3 percent in 1960). And this doesn’t take into given creatively to improve our country in thousands account volunteering—the equivalent of an additional of ways. 5-10 million full-time employees (depending on how The Almanac of American Philanthropy, released in you count), labor worth hundreds of billions of dollars January, will appeal to everyday citizens, donors, charity per year. workers, journalists, national leaders, and culture and America’s fabled “military-industrial complex” is history buffs. It offers an authoritative collection of often used as a classic example of a formidable indus- major achievements of U.S. philanthropy, lively profiles try. Well guess what? The nonprofit sector passed the of the nation’s greatest givers (large and small), and use- national-defense sector in size way back in 1993. ful compilations of the most important ideas, statistics, And philanthropy’s importance stretches far beyond polls, literature, quotations, and thinking on this quint- economics. Each year, seven out of ten Americans essentially American topic. donate to at least one charitable cause. Contributions The facts, stories, and history contained in the are from two to 20 times higher in the U.S. than in other Almanac will fill gaping practical and intellectual holes countries of comparable wealth and modernity. Private in our self-awareness. And in this special issue of giving is a deeply engrained part of our culture—a font Philanthropy you’ll get a detailed preview. The pages that of human creativity and crucial source of new solutions follow present a rich, illustrated introduction not only to to problems. Voluntary efforts to repair social weak- this important new book, but to the vital institution of nesses, enrich our culture, and strengthen community philanthropy itself. life have long been a hallmark of our country. Yet, somehow, there exists no definitive resource THE ALMANAC OF AMERICAN PHILANTHROPY Karl Zinsmeister is creator of The Almanac THE ALMANAC OF AMERICAN PHILANTHROPY THE ALMANAC OF AMERICAN that chronicles our philanthropy and puts it in a PHILANTHROPY of American Philanthropy, just published by a lively compendium of Great Donors Major Achievements Essential Books & Quotations Vital Statistics & Polls context where it can be fully appreciated. Until now. History & Timeline The Philanthropy Roundtable. This excerpt is and more! Karl Zinsmeister The Philanthropy Roundtable PhilanthropyRoundtable.org The Philanthropy Roundtable decided that (202) 822-8333the AlmanacOfPhilanthropy.org adapted from the book’s Introduction and its Library of Congress / Bain News Service; Gap Corporate Communications; The Communications; Gap Corporate Service; / Bain News Congress of Library Archief Fotocollectie / Nationaal Museum; CC-BY-SA Air & Space Intrepid Sea, istockphoto.com Center; History Archief; San Diego Nationaal Anefo great American undertakings of private giving and national poll results. WINTER 2016 15 Part I “How Philanthropy Fuels American Success” by Karl Zinsmeister DONORS + PASSION = POTENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS here are Iliads and Odysseys of human interest Around his sixtieth birthday, McIlhenny realized that in American philanthropy. Some tremendously these songs were dying out and at risk of being forgotten intriguingT Americans of all stripes have poured time forever. So he again sprang into action with both his and treasure into helping their fellow man. Absent checkbook and his personal involvement. their passion and resources, our nation would be less He used his contacts to find two elderly singers thriving, and our individual days would be flatter, who still remembered many of the songs—which until darker, more dangerous, and less happy. Let’s meet then had existed only in an oral tradition—and he some of these philanthropists. hired a musicologist to sit with him as these ladies performed, so the lyrics and melodies could be written Larger-than-life characters out. They took care to preserve the music in scrupu- Ned McIlhenny, born and raised on a Louisiana bayou, lous detail, exactly as it had been handed down among was an expert on camellias, on alligators, on the hundreds generations of slaves. of varieties of bamboo that grow around the world, and McIlhenny then published these songs as a book, on wild turkeys. He was an Arctic explorer. His skills which became a classic of the genre. All but a handful as a hunter once helped save the lives of 200 ice-bound of the 125 spirituals he captured were unrecorded in any sailors. He was an ornithologist who personally banded other place, so he single-handedly saved these soulful more than a quarter of a million birds. And he also had artifacts of American history for future generations. a day job selling the hot-pepper condiment invented by McIlhenny’s songs included one that provided Martin his family: McIlhenny Tabasco sauce. Luther King Jr. with his most famous line: It turns out there is real money in burning mouths, and McIlhenny used his for an amazing array of good When we allow freedom to ring…from every works. For one thing, he got very attached to a fellow village and hamlet…we will…speed up that native of Louisiana’s bayous: the snowy egret. When day when all of God’s children, black men and McIlhenny was young, hats bearing egret plumes were white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and for ladies what Coach handbags are today. This fashion Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in mania had the effect of nearly driving the snowy egret to the words of the old Negro spiritual: extinction, and no one was doing anything about it. So Free at last! Free at last! the philanthropist swung into action. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! McIlhenny beat the bushes in wild parts of the island his family owned and managed to find eight baby egrets in Another red-blooded American philanthropist two nests. He raised these hatchlings in a protected area, who helped freedom last was Alfred Loomis. His phil- paid for their care over a period of years, and by 1911 had anthropic field was national defense. Many of us think built up a population of 100,000 egrets on his private ref- of defense as the ultimate government responsibility, uge. He simultaneously recruited John Rockefeller, Olivia and a place without room or need for philanthropy. So Sage, and other philanthropists to buy up and preserve it may come as a surprise to learn that private donors swampy land in Louisiana that is important as winter hab- have played important roles in securing our nation itat of migratory waterfowl, including egrets. In this way throughout its history. They financed our Revolution. he rescued a magnificent creature that was on the verge of They created the modern field of code-making and disappearing from the Earth. -breaking. Donors single-handedly developed the field Later in his life, McIlhenny took action to stave off of rocketry, and fanned private space launch into fiery a very different kind of extinction. He had been raised success. (For details on how philanthropy has repeat- with Negro spirituals in his ears, and loved them dearly. edly bolstered our national defense, see “Donors Who 16 PHILANTHROPY Ned McIlhenny was a high adventurer whose energy, wide-ranging interests, and fortune allowed him to rack up many fascinating and consequential achievements as a Come to the Aid of their Country” in the Summer philanthropist. He took action to rescue the endangered snowy egret, a fellow resident of 2015 issue of Philanthropy.) Louisiana’s bayous. And he also saved from extinction many classic Negro spirituals, No donor was more crucial in building America’s which he grew up with and loved dearly. military strength than Alfred Loomis. After financ- ing much of the electrification of rural America as a was brewing, and that science would have a lot to do with Wall Street dealmaker, he became convinced that the who won. So he poured himself and his money into one stock market was overvalued and converted everything new field in particular: using radio waves to detect mov- he owned to cash and T-bills in 1929. When the ing objects. His lab quickly became the national leader in October 1929 Crash came, he was not only protected what we now call radar. Practical radar sets created under but in a perfect position to go shopping at bargain Loomis’s supervision were delivered to the Army and Navy prices. By the early 1930s Loomis was one of the rich- by the thousands, and turned the tide of World War II. est men in America, and at age 45 he retired from If radar won the war, the atomic bomb ended it. And finance to put all of his time and energy, and much of as it happens Alfred Loomis had a lot to do with that his money, into his true love: science. He set up one as well. The method he used for his radar triumphs was of the world’s great science labs in a mansion near to relentlessly gather the best scientific minds, without his home, invited top researchers from around the regard to their prior specialties, give them rich resources, world to experiment there, and conducted his own and protect them from bureaucratic interference.