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The First Modern Philanthropist
Home » Non Profits » Philanthropy » The First Modern PhilanthropistModern philanthropy owes much of its foundation to Andrew Carnegie. Born in Scotland, his father brought him to America in 1848 where he worked in a cotton mill. By 1873 Carnegie recognized the nation’s impending need for steel, and he began to acquire companies, ultimately forming the Carnegie Steel Company. He amassed great wealth and by 1900 his company was producing one-quarter of all the steel used in the United States. The U.S. Steel Corporation was eventually formed for the purpose of buying out Carnegie’s company.
In the midst of his extraordinary financial success, Carnegie authored “The Gospel of Wealth” in 1889. In the document, he proposed that wealth should be administered for the public good, and that a person’s life should have two primary cycles: the amassing of wealth and the distribution of it to others. He suggested that a wealthy person is only a “trustee” of that wealth, and it is up to the individual to use the wealth for the betterment of mankind.
Carnegie radically lived what he believed, and after the sale of the Carnegie Steel Company to the U.S. government in 1901, he spent the rest of his life as a philanthropist. Among numerous efforts in the States and in Scotland, his benefactions include Carnegie Hall, Carnegie Mellon University, the Carnegie Foundation, and over 2,800 libraries. By his death in 1919 Carnegie had given away $350,695,653. The remaining $30,000,000 was donated to various foundations and charities.
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