Giving On A Global Scale

By Karl Taro Greenfeld

Some of his fellow big-dollar donors have privately equated CNN founder and Time Warner vice chairman Ted Turner's philanthropic choices--in particular his endowment of a $1.1 billion United Nations Foundation--as equivalent to flushing money down the toilet. The U.N., after all, is as renowned for inefficiency and politicization as it is for peacekeeping.

But Turner will tell you he doesn't give a damn what you think about how he gives his money away, because that's one of the prerogatives of being worth $9 billion: you can give it away however you want. "I'm very internationally focused," Turner says as he chews on a cigar in his Atlanta CNN Center office. "I think, you know, we're all living on this little planet here, and you know, the borders of countries are just lines on a piece of paper." Sure, he admits, the U.N. gets into a tangle now and then. "Like any organization that's run by people," he says, "it's imperfect." Turner points out that he gives quite a bit of money to the U.S. government in taxes, and the last time he checked, that was less than a lean, clean operation. He feels compelled to donate to the U.N. in part because the U.S. has not been paying its membership dues. "The U.N. has bills just like any other organization," Turner says, citing U.N.-sponsored environment and family-planning organizations as being among the recipients of U.N. largesse.

Turner considers his philanthropy, whether through the U.N. or his Turner Foundation, which also focuses on environment and population issues, as among his greatest achievements. "My children all turned out terrific," he says. "And then, well, trying to help others is very satisfying." He admits, though, that he doesn't know why he likes giving. "Is it your ego, or is it the fact that you've got a warm heart?" he asks rhetorically, grinning. And he doesn't give a damn which answer you prefer.

--K.T.G.