American billionaire patron John Arnold accused charity funds in greed and called them “tools for storing wealth.” He stated this in an interview with CNBC.
A businessman who himself founded the charitable organization ARNOLD VENTURES, called for reform legislation in this area. Arnold reproached the funds in the fact that they instantly receive a tax deduction from the state, but they are not treated to spend money on the needy, and called them a “charity-savings account.” Over the past decade, the assets of American charity funds rose four times to 140 billion dollars.
In early June, Senators Angus King and Chuck Grassli prepared a bill “about accelerating charitable efforts” (ACCELETITING Charitable Efforts (ACE) ACT), according to which the funds are provided with two options for obtaining tax mailings from the state. Either they are immediately provided with a tax deduction if they agree to distribute the collected funds for 15 years, or they receive the right not to spend money up to 50 years, but then the tax deduction is credited to the fact of spending. “Dollars allocated for charity must fulfill their goal and benefit, and not idle,” said Senator Grassli.
Fidelity Charitable Foundation said that in 2020 allocated two million grants for $ 9 billion, which is 24 percent more than in 2019. The Schwab Charitable Independent Foundation reported grants by $ 3.7 billion in 2020, which is 35 percent more than a year earlier. Arnold cites another statistics: in 2020, when, due to a pandemic, assistance was particularly required, 35 percent of the funds did not allocate the dollar for charity. Over the past four years, 10 percent of organizations have not performed any operations.
In early February, The Chronicle of Philanthropy magazine published a list of the most generous American benefactors. The first place was taken by the richest man of the world, the founder of Amazon Jeff Bezos, who sent more than 10 billion dollars to various structures. The second place was taken by his wife Mackenzi Scott, which invested in charity 5.73 billion dollars. In third place was the former mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg (1.6 billion).