Chuck Feeney gave anonymously for several reasons. One was because he was worried that if his wealth became public knowledge, his children would be vulnerable to kidnappers. A second is that by being quiet about his wealth, he could make site visits and acquire more honest assessments of potential recipients of his aid than he would if potential grantees realized he was a billionaire. Another reason for anonymity was to avoid being flooded with grant applications.

Feeney’s choice to give all his money away during his lifetime no longer looks like an outlier, oddball decision, but a remarkably prescient forerunner to the activities of today’s billionaire philanthropists.

Bloomberg Philanthropies has a term limit and why Bill Gates decided to terminate the Gates Foundation 20 years after the death of he and his wife Melinda.

They realize that philanthropic best practices include strong donor control and ensuring that the foundation you create has limited life.

Read the full article on Chuck Feeney by Martin Morse Wooster at Philanthropy Daily