In 1996, Ted Turner complained that the super-rich were being corrupted by the Forbes 400 list. An impolitic billionaire who actually acknowledges such motivations as ego and one-upmanship, Mr Turner said the richest Americans were not giving their money away because they feared falling lower on the net worth rankings. He wished they would compete instead at giving their fortunes away.
Mr Turner followed his suggestion with $1bn to support the work of the United Nations. The magazine I edit, Slate, followed it by publishing an annual list of the 60 largest American donations. This week, we invited the donors to Little Rock, Arkansas, for a conference on philanthropic innovation co-sponsored by the Clinton Foundation. We wanted to celebrate the generosity of these large givers and also spur discussion about the current renaissance in philanthropy.
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