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Giving while Living

Engage Now. Give Today. Change Tomorrow

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The need is now. Why wait?

By devoting the majority of your wealth to philanthropy during your lifetime, you can experience the immense satisfaction of not only making a difference, but seeing it happen now.

Giving While Living is an entrepreneurial approach to philanthropy by which you actively devote your money, skills and time to make a difference sooner rather than later. You can learn and make adjustments to get the biggest bang–and impact–for your buck.

Give smart. Give now. Give it your all.

“It’s a lot more fun to give while you’re alive, than to give while you’re dead.”

For Chuck Feeney, it was simple. The joy of giving generously to help others and seeing the results is what drove him to transfer the vast majority of his fortune to The Atlantic Philanthropies in 1984.

Chuck gave big money to address big problems, especially in places where he could have a dramatic impact. Helping advance the peace process in Northern Ireland. Modernizing Viet Nam’s health systems. Building science, technology and medical hubs in the Bay Area, at NYC Cornell Tech and around the world.

Chuck was an inspiration to philanthropists, like Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates, encouraging them to donate significant wealth during their lifetimes, and they in turn have urged others do the same.

I had one idea that never changed in my mind — that you should use your wealth to help people.

Read More About These Philanthropists

  • Bill and Melinda Gates

    Co-Chair and Trustee, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

    "Is the rich world aware of how four billion of the six billion live? If we were aware, we would want to help out, we’d want to get involved.”

  • Julius Rosenwald

    Founder, The Rosenwald Fund

    "I believe that more good can be accomplished by expending funds as trustees find opportunities for constructive work than by storing a large sum of money….Coming generations can be relied upon to provide for their own needs.”

  • Cari Tuna and Dustin Moskovitz

    Founders, Good Ventures

    "The world is getting better, and that means that giving opportunities now are better than they're going to be 10 or 20 or 30 years from now, hopefully. The good you do today compounds over time." - Cari Tuna

  • Jack Ma

    Founder, Alibaba

    "Concern and complaints cannot change the current situation. I am passionate about actively contributing and helping to solve these problems."

  • Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan

    Founders, The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

    "We want every child to grow up in a better world. Our hopes for the future center on two ideas: advancing human potential and promoting equality. We’ll focus first on personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities. We will make long-term investments over 25, 50 or even 100 years because our greatest challenges require time to solve.”

  • Anthony Welters

    Entrepreneur

    “Philanthropy isn’t something that happens overnight. It builds over time. I saw an opportunity to be supportive of others, in the same way that people were supportive of me. As I became more successful, I continued sharing with others. It’s what my wife and I do in the normal course of our lives.”

  • Amit Chandra

    Managing Director, Bain Capital

    "My wife, Archana, and I decided that we should give purposefully and actually aim to solve problems, rather than just write cheques. We worked to define our material needs and calculated a sum that would suffice to meet them. Then we walked into our lawyer’s office to transfer that to her, with the objective of giving nearly all of the rest of it and future accruals on account of my income, during our lifetime."

  • Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen

    Founder, Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen Foundation

    “Shouldn't you put the same amount of effort into your giving as you might for your for-profit investments? After all, philanthropy is an investment, and one in which lives - not profits - are at stake.”

  • Warren Buffett

    Chairman, Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

    “Were we to use more than 1% of my claim checks (Berkshire Hathaway stock certificates) on ourselves, neither our happiness nor our well-being would be enhanced. In contrast, that remaining 99% can have a huge effect on the health and welfare of others.”

Live the best part of your legacy.

Find out why and how Giving While Living inspires philanthropists around the world.

Atlantic Insights: Giving While Living

Atlantic Summary

Chuck Feeney started The Atlantic Philanthropies in 1982, and for 35 years we’ve worked to fulfill his philanthropic vision. Through the conclusion of our grantmaking in 2016, we invested 8 billion dollars to advance opportunity and promote equity and dignity around the world.