Fortune Cookie

‘Never scratch a fortune’

從來不刮財

Early in my career while toiling in the vineyards of philanthropy, I learned never to question the provenance of wealth. The acquisition of riches is not always odor-free: e.g., Astor, Ford, Rockefeller, Carnegie, etc. — the people who built America may have gone to church on Sunday but stole, robbed, shot strikers, and exploited the proles for the other six days. But through foundations and direct giving, they also established and nurtured American philanthropy as we know it today.

Dirty money was at the root of America’s great fortunes of the past; the blessed use thereof sanctified it. Today, wealth is created at a much faster pace and is far more transactional. Jeffrey Epstein was a successful pretender, inordinately gifted at attracting rich and influential men to the pretense — and women and girls to the couch.

Leon Botstein, (above), president of Bard College* met Epstein because to save his school from going under in 1975, he raised money aggressively and successfully. Epstein was the type of person seen as ideal for philanthropic support; his aura was access and power, the type of person seen as ideal for philanthropic support. The fundraising hunt is unavoidable for nonprofits.

Wealth is wealth, and even though Epstein’s promised subventions never arrived, Botstein’s chase for Epstein’s money is the tacky norm. He was conned but he has the guts and the grace to own it. High-end schnorring is the work life of the college president. Mendicancy is honest work though it tastes of castor oil. Whatever Botstein knew, or what he cared about, is irrelevant. He was doing what he must. I give him a pass.

I once accompanied my client, a college president, on a visit to a nine-figure-net-worth-guy. The president got down on this gentleman’s living room floor to unfurl a map of the site for a new multimillion dollar building that was to be built and named in his honor. The donor did not nose the floor. The kneeling supplication sums up the groveling that accompanies the ask.

Over the years, I worked with a few other high-up men who had been guests of the judiciary, one for an act of conscience and the others for routine financial felonies. When the latter two left prison, still rich, they turned to good works — whether truly rehabilitated and pure of motive, or just to grease the glide into heaven.

Epstein was a user, pimp and rapist who dangled money and access to get what he wanted — connections, power, influence and cash; the dang-lees often got the goodies they wanted in exchange for proximity to power and the relief of lust. Now, copious alligator tears flow, chests are beaten from convex to concave; in modern office buildings, the windows don’t open.

I made a nice life enabling client organizations to hone a philanthropic edge. I never scratched a fortune.

Most of the time, even the dirtiest money whitens.

*Photo: Chronicle of Higher Education