A little-known businessman named Charles Feeney died on Monday. He was 92. At the time of Charles' death, he wasn't particularly rich. In fact, at the time of his death, he had no money at all. He was living in a rented apartment and had no assets or wealth to his name. On paper, he was broke. And, actually, that was his goal all along.
So why are we writing about a little-known, broke businessman here on Celebrity Net Worth?
After making a fortune from Duty Free stores in the 1960s and 1970s, Chuck did what any of us would do. He enjoyed an extravagant lifestyle that included all the trappings. Multiple mansions, private jets, jewelry, limousines… Every luxury a billionaire could buy. He then did something NONE of us would do. He decided to give it all away. All of it. He didn't just downsize to one mansion and one private jet while keeping billions in the bank earning interest. Chuck Feeney vowed to die without any money at all. He called it his "Giving while Living" philosophy.
Not only did Chuck accomplish his goal, along the way he inspired two important billionaires to give while they live: Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. And thanks almost entirely to Chuck Feeney's example, $600 BILLION has been pledged to charity by other billionaires through "The Giving Pledge." Both Warren and Bill considered Chuck, their personal hero. And you're about to understand why.
Consider this: While many billionaires have given away more than $8 billion during their lifetimes, can you name someone who gave away their entire multi-billion fortune during their lifetime?
As you're about to learn, Charles Feeney should go down as one of the most important humans in modern history…
(Photo by Liz O. Baylen/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Duty Free Fortune
Charles "Chuck" Feeney was born on April 23, 1931, right around the height of the great depression. The family struggled to pay their $32 monthly mortgage. Chuck was entrepreneurial from a young age. At ten, he sold Christmas cards door-to-door.
After graduating from high school in 1948, he served four years in the Air Force as part of the American occupation of Japan after World War II. During his time in the military, Chuck was first exposed to the concept of duty-free liquor sales. At the time, these sales almost exclusively took place on military bases. He must have made a mental note.
Upon completing his military service, he returned to America and attended Cornell University on a G.I. bill. During his time at Cornell, he sold sandwiches to students to earn extra cash.
After graduating in 1956, Chuck moved to France, then Spain, looking for business opportunities. In Spain, he met a fellow Cornell alum named Robert Miller. Together, they decided to launch a business selling duty free liquor, cigarettes, cameras, and perfume to American servicemen who were about to sail back to the US.
As we said a moment ago, the concept of "duty free stores" was not common in the late 1950s. Chuck and Robert realized these stores could easily exist outside of military bases. There was nothing stopping anyone from operating duty free stores at international airports. So that's what they did.
On November 7, 1960, Chuck and Robert co-founded Duty Free Shoppers Group, also known as the DFS Group. The company initially started its efforts in Hong Kong, soon expanding to Europe and then the world.
A major breakthrough happened in the early 1960s when DFS won the exclusive right to operate duty-free concessions in the state of Hawaii. Japanese travelers soon began loading up on liquor and cigarettes on their journeys.
Over time, DFS expanded away from airports, opening locations in regular malls, mainly in Asia. Throughout the 1990s, Chuck and Robert both took home $300 million per year in profit dividends.
In 1996, Chuck and Robert sold DFS to Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH). Feeney's cut of the sale was $1.63 billion. But there was an interesting catch to the sale…
Giving It All Away
Technically, Chuck was not the beneficiary when he and Robert sold DFS. Eight years prior to the sale, Chuck quietly transferred 100% of his assets, most notably his 39% stake in DFS, to a foundation he established called Atlantic Philanthropies, which focused on education, science, human rights, and healthcare around the world.
Between 1984 and 1996, Chuck anonymously gave away hundreds of millions of dollars without seeking any credit or recognition. In fact, most of the recipients had no idea where or who the money was coming from. And to keep his donations truly anonymous, Chuck didn't even accept the tax benefits. So he was, in effect, losing hundreds of millions of dollars in potential tax benefits by staying totally anonymous.
The 1996 sale to LVMH inadvertently exposed Chuck's secret. Chuck's partner, Robert, didn't actually want to sell. He sued to block it from proceeding. In his lawsuit, Robert argued that Chuck didn't have the right to negotiate for the company's sale because he no longer owned the shares. Atlantic Philanthropies controlled the shares. The lawsuit was not successful, and the sale went through. But the cat was out of the bag. From that point on, Chuck's foundation took the government up on all available tax benefits.
Over the next two decades, Atlantic Charities gave away all $8 billion of Chuck Feeney's wealth. Wait… how did he go from $1.63 billion to $8 billion?
Well, as it turned out, all along Chuck was shrewdly investing Atlantic Philanthropies' money into the stock market. Atlantic Philanthropies found itself sitting on very valuable early stakes in tech companies like Priceline, E-Trade, and Facebook.
He gave more than $1 billion to his alma mater, Cornell. His name appears on no campus buildings.
By 2016, Chunk Feeney had given away all but roughly $2 million of his former multi-billion dollar fortune and was living in a rented San Francisco apartment.
In 2020, he shuttered Atlantic Philanthropies, as there was no more money left to give away.
The Giving Pledge
Upon learning his story and meeting him in person, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett were so inspired by Chuck's "Giving while Living" concept, they decided to follow his lead. In June 2010, they established the now-famous "Giving Pledge," which to date has inspired more than 230 billionaires to pledge more than $600 billion to charity.
When Chuck signed the pledge in 2011, he said:
"I cannot think of a more personally rewarding and appropriate use of wealth than to give while one is living — to personally devote oneself to meaningful efforts to improve the human condition."
In 2014 Warren Buffett presented Chuck with a lifetime achievement award for philanthropy. In his introduction, Buffett said:
"It's a real honor to talk about a fellow who is my hero and Bill Gates' hero. He should be everybody's hero."
I agree. Rest in peace, Chuck! We all know where you are resting now!
