Billionaire Philanthropy and Haiti: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

First, an example of how to gracelessly give away a large sum of money to an important cause. Meet Stewart Rahr, pharmaceutical billionaire known as much for his company Kinray’s inexpensive generic drugs as he is for his party-going alibi, STEWIE RAH-RAH THE #1 KING OF ALL FUN. It’s even emblazoned on his email signatures- in all caps.

Rahr may be colorful (literally and figuratively) but he is generous with his fortune, which Forbes last estimated to be worth $1.95 billion. So I wasn’t surprised to see a release hit PR Newswire earlier this morning touting Rahr’s latest benevolent gesture:

Stewart Rahr, the self-made billionaire owner of Kinray announced today a substantial donation to charitable organizations helping the people of Haiti.

via Pharma Billionaire Stewart Rahr Provides Substantial Donation to Haiti Charities — NEW YORK, Jan. 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ –.

Ok, so a little light on some specifics- the size of the gift, the identity of the recipients, exact efforts being funded- but if a gift is about the giver, then the release says a lot.

Rahr was a primary participant in the “Hope for Haiti Telethon,” where others manning the phones included organizer George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Justin Timberlake, Leonardo DiCaprio, Halle Berry, Ringo Starr, Julia Roberts, Taylor Swift, Brad Pitt, Mohammad Ali, Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Cindy Crawford, Robert DeNiro, Charlize Theron, Mel Gibson, Cameron Diaz, Reese Witherspoon, Keith Urban, Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Jeremy Pivens, Adam Sandler,Sheryl Crow, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Aniston, Penelope Cruz, as well as one hundred other top entertainers in the music, movie and television industry.

Are you dazzled yet? That’s right, Rahr keeps company with A LOT of big deals and will dedicate 75% of a 300-word press release to prove it. He concludes with a thoughtful quote from Winston Churchill and, at the very bottom, a reminder of who drafted this mildly-megalomaniacal announcement:

SOURCE Stewart Rahr

It’s vague, self-promotional charity stunts like these that give fundraising efforts by the rich and famous (such as last Friday’s Hollywood telethon) a bad name. Despite some questionable musical pairings (Rhianna and Bono?) the telethon was muted, somber, favorably received and successful, raising $58 million. Mobilizing massive wealth and star power for a good cause is admirable but works best when egos are checked strictly at the door.

And positive examples abound- George Soros donated $4 million to relief efforts through his Open Society Institute, supermarket magnate Ron Burkle (also a socialite, albeit a low-profile one) hosted a benefit event, and Irish telecom mogul, Denis O’Brien, has donated $5 million to disaster relief. O’Brien’s company Digicel is Haiti’s largest company and its biggest direct investor.

And there are surely dozens more benefactors that we don’t know about since many billionaire philanthropists could care less about publicity.