A Rockefeller's lessons in philanthropy

Sunday
Dec 3, 2017 at 2:01 AM

By James BarronThe New York Times

Somewhere beneath New York City’s Rockefeller Center, in a workroom with the bare fluorescent lights and tall shelves of a big discount warehouse, auction-house employees are sorting through Chinese porcelain tureens, duck decoys, prized paintings and hundreds of other items. A studio has been set up where close-up photos will be taken for the catalogs that will be issued before everything is sold five months from now.

It's all exactly what David Rockefeller wanted.

The items being logged in by Christie’s in New York belonged to Rockefeller, the methodical banker from the storied family who died in March at age 101. The money from the sales will fund pledges he made more than a decade ago to a dozen institutions, among them two universities and the Museum of Modern Art, which stand to receive more than $100 million each.

Several other groups will receive amounts that are smaller but still immense by most people’s standards. And all of them could collect more, in the proportions he outlined, if bidding wars break out over his porcelain or his Picassos and Cézannes, driving the prices past the presale estimates.

Rockefeller, who gave away $20 million to $30 million a year in the last 10 years of his long life, found another way to use philanthropy to make a difference — a big difference, if the sales at Christie’s bring in the $700 million that some auction experts are predicting. The previous record for an auction was set when the collection of the fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Bergé, was sold for $484 million in Paris in 2009.

But that money did not go to charity.

Becky MacGuire, a senior specialist in Chinese export art at Christie’s, said she could not recall a collection Christie’s had sold that was as large or as varied. And everything is what might be described as gently used.

“He really lived with these things,” she said. “They weren’t collected to be locked away in a strong box or a vault or a cold room lined with shelves. He was very explicit. He was just a custodian of these things, and he knew after his lifetime that they would pass on to other people who would get tremendous enjoyment the way he did.”

Rockefeller decided on his plan years ago, even before he signed something called the Giving Pledge. The brainchild of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren E. Buffett, the Giving Pledge began as a way to induce wealthy people to commit to donating at least half of their fortunes to philanthropy — if not while they were alive, then after they died.

The initial reception was somewhat chilly in philanthropic and nonprofit circles. Some fundraisers maintained that the pledge amounted to little more than a public-relations ploy. But more than 170 ultrawealthy people have signed it.

In the beginning, Buffett said he believed the real value of the pledge would be the example it set. And Rockefeller set an example that went beyond signaling publicly what he had already decided to do. He helped arrange a dinner at Rockefeller University that was attended by Gates, Buffett and other early Giving Pledge signers. His imprimatur added the credibility that only he could confer, and he was pleased that people who had made their fortunes were making plans to devote them to global issues.

His approach to distributing his money was strikingly contemporary. David Callahan, the author of “The Givers: Wealth, Power and Philanthropy in a New Gilded Age,” called Rockefeller “a model of what high-impact philanthropy looks like.”

Rockefeller himself said that philanthropy involved more than money, although he noted dryly that money was essential. Rockefeller wrote when he signed the Giving Pledge in 2010 that effective philanthropy “requires patience — patience to deal with unexpected obstacles; patience to wait for the slight stirring of change; and patience to listen to the insights and ideas of others.”

Peter J. Johnson, the Rockefeller family historian, said there was more to his patience. Johnson said that by the time Rockefeller committed to a donation, he believed that there would be a payoff for the organization — maybe not today and maybe not tomorrow, but someday.

Wealth advisers say that is a lesson for people with fewer zeros in their bank accounts. Another page from Rockefeller’s playbook that philanthropy experts point to is picking charities whose work you care about and, whenever possible, know firsthand.

On his list were institutions he was familiar with: Harvard University, where he received his bachelor’s degree in 1936); the Museum of Modern Art (his mother Abby Greene Aldrich Rockefellerwas one of its founders); the Council on Foreign Relations (he led its board for 15 years, until 1985); three groups concerned with preserving land near where he had houses; and three Rockefeller funds (he served as secretary of one, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, from the day it was organized in 1940).

“He reviewed the budgets and financial statements of all the organizations with which he had a connection,” Johnson said. “He liked to immerse himself. He knew the strengths and weaknesses.”

Stacy Singer, a senior vice president at Northern Trust Co. who is not involved with the coming sales, said that kind of involvement could avoid headaches after a donor’s death.

“We’ve had any number of situations where individuals have either laid out very specific ideas for a charity that they’ve never discussed with the charity or donated a number of pieces of art without talking to the institution, and after they died, the institution couldn’t carry out the directions or didn’t want the art, so it became a headache for someone to work through,” she said. “No one feels very good about that situation.

Patrick Rooney, professor of economics and philanthropic studies at Indiana University’s Lilly School of Philanthropy, underscored that point, saying that one of Rockefeller’s accomplishments was to plan.

“We’re all in denial about our deaths,” Rooney said, “and it’s the one thing we know is going to happen with certainty. You can plan for it, or you can be in denial.”

Ann Limberg, the head of philanthropic solutions and the family office of U.S. Trust, added that leaving instructions the way Rockefeller did provided heirs “with clarity, it’s helpful and it leaves little room for debate or potential conflict.”

Cataloging the items from four Rockefeller houses at Christie’s, MacGuire said the Rockefellers had so many plates, dishes, cups and saucers so they could serve a Rockefeller-size dinner party — not 10 or 12 people, but 40. And Rockefeller had already given so many away that he could not keep track.

“In the ‘90s, he went to dinner at the American Embassy in Beijing,” she said. “They were served dinner on this wonderful Chinese export dinner service.”

He thought the bowls and plates looked familiar and asked where they had come from. “They said, ‘Well, of course, you lent it to us,’ she said. He said, ‘I should be giving it to you,’ and he did. He followed up with all the paperwork.”

Sunday
Dec 3, 2017 at 2:01 AM

By James BarronThe New York Times

Somewhere beneath New York City’s Rockefeller Center, in a workroom with the bare fluorescent lights and tall shelves of a big discount warehouse, auction-house employees are sorting through Chinese porcelain tureens, duck decoys, prized paintings and hundreds of other items. A studio has been set up where close-up photos will be taken for the catalogs that will be issued before everything is sold five months from now.

It's all exactly what David Rockefeller wanted.

The items being logged in by Christie’s in New York belonged to Rockefeller, the methodical banker from the storied family who died in March at age 101. The money from the sales will fund pledges he made more than a decade ago to a dozen institutions, among them two universities and the Museum of Modern Art, which stand to receive more than $100 million each.

Several other groups will receive amounts that are smaller but still immense by most people’s standards. And all of them could collect more, in the proportions he outlined, if bidding wars break out over his porcelain or his Picassos and Cézannes, driving the prices past the presale estimates.

Rockefeller, who gave away $20 million to $30 million a year in the last 10 years of his long life, found another way to use philanthropy to make a difference — a big difference, if the sales at Christie’s bring in the $700 million that some auction experts are predicting. The previous record for an auction was set when the collection of the fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Bergé, was sold for $484 million in Paris in 2009.

But that money did not go to charity.

Becky MacGuire, a senior specialist in Chinese export art at Christie’s, said she could not recall a collection Christie’s had sold that was as large or as varied. And everything is what might be described as gently used.

“He really lived with these things,” she said. “They weren’t collected to be locked away in a strong box or a vault or a cold room lined with shelves. He was very explicit. He was just a custodian of these things, and he knew after his lifetime that they would pass on to other people who would get tremendous enjoyment the way he did.”

Rockefeller decided on his plan years ago, even before he signed something called the Giving Pledge. The brainchild of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren E. Buffett, the Giving Pledge began as a way to induce wealthy people to commit to donating at least half of their fortunes to philanthropy — if not while they were alive, then after they died.

The initial reception was somewhat chilly in philanthropic and nonprofit circles. Some fundraisers maintained that the pledge amounted to little more than a public-relations ploy. But more than 170 ultrawealthy people have signed it.

In the beginning, Buffett said he believed the real value of the pledge would be the example it set. And Rockefeller set an example that went beyond signaling publicly what he had already decided to do. He helped arrange a dinner at Rockefeller University that was attended by Gates, Buffett and other early Giving Pledge signers. His imprimatur added the credibility that only he could confer, and he was pleased that people who had made their fortunes were making plans to devote them to global issues.

His approach to distributing his money was strikingly contemporary. David Callahan, the author of “The Givers: Wealth, Power and Philanthropy in a New Gilded Age,” called Rockefeller “a model of what high-impact philanthropy looks like.”

Rockefeller himself said that philanthropy involved more than money, although he noted dryly that money was essential. Rockefeller wrote when he signed the Giving Pledge in 2010 that effective philanthropy “requires patience — patience to deal with unexpected obstacles; patience to wait for the slight stirring of change; and patience to listen to the insights and ideas of others.”

Peter J. Johnson, the Rockefeller family historian, said there was more to his patience. Johnson said that by the time Rockefeller committed to a donation, he believed that there would be a payoff for the organization — maybe not today and maybe not tomorrow, but someday.

Wealth advisers say that is a lesson for people with fewer zeros in their bank accounts. Another page from Rockefeller’s playbook that philanthropy experts point to is picking charities whose work you care about and, whenever possible, know firsthand.

On his list were institutions he was familiar with: Harvard University, where he received his bachelor’s degree in 1936); the Museum of Modern Art (his mother Abby Greene Aldrich Rockefellerwas one of its founders); the Council on Foreign Relations (he led its board for 15 years, until 1985); three groups concerned with preserving land near where he had houses; and three Rockefeller funds (he served as secretary of one, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, from the day it was organized in 1940).

“He reviewed the budgets and financial statements of all the organizations with which he had a connection,” Johnson said. “He liked to immerse himself. He knew the strengths and weaknesses.”

Stacy Singer, a senior vice president at Northern Trust Co. who is not involved with the coming sales, said that kind of involvement could avoid headaches after a donor’s death.

“We’ve had any number of situations where individuals have either laid out very specific ideas for a charity that they’ve never discussed with the charity or donated a number of pieces of art without talking to the institution, and after they died, the institution couldn’t carry out the directions or didn’t want the art, so it became a headache for someone to work through,” she said. “No one feels very good about that situation.

Patrick Rooney, professor of economics and philanthropic studies at Indiana University’s Lilly School of Philanthropy, underscored that point, saying that one of Rockefeller’s accomplishments was to plan.

“We’re all in denial about our deaths,” Rooney said, “and it’s the one thing we know is going to happen with certainty. You can plan for it, or you can be in denial.”

Ann Limberg, the head of philanthropic solutions and the family office of U.S. Trust, added that leaving instructions the way Rockefeller did provided heirs “with clarity, it’s helpful and it leaves little room for debate or potential conflict.”

Cataloging the items from four Rockefeller houses at Christie’s, MacGuire said the Rockefellers had so many plates, dishes, cups and saucers so they could serve a Rockefeller-size dinner party — not 10 or 12 people, but 40. And Rockefeller had already given so many away that he could not keep track.

“In the ‘90s, he went to dinner at the American Embassy in Beijing,” she said. “They were served dinner on this wonderful Chinese export dinner service.”

He thought the bowls and plates looked familiar and asked where they had come from. “They said, ‘Well, of course, you lent it to us,’ she said. He said, ‘I should be giving it to you,’ and he did. He followed up with all the paperwork.”

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