Anne Scheiber: The quietest can make a great noise.

Anne Scheiber's Gift
Published: December 05, 1995

With the season of holidays and gift-giving comes the story of Anne Scheiber, a 101-year-old recluse who spent her retirement quietly turning a $5,000 nest egg into a $22 million stock portfolio. She then left the entire fortune that she had accumulated over half a century to Yeshiva University, to establish scholarships for needy women students there.

"Here's a woman who for 101 years was childless and now becomes a mother to a whole community," said the president of the university.

During her life, Ms. Scheiber had no direct contact with the university, or indeed with just about anyone except her lawyer and stockbroker. Although she clearly had a genius for finance, she founded no business. She had no close family, and no friends. She had no projects, no charities, did no volunteer work. She retired a half-century ago from the Internal Revenue Service feeling that her hard work there had gone unrewarded because of her sex. It was apparently that memory that inspired her bequest.

Ms. Scheiber's gift recalls the story of Oseola McCarty, the 87-year-old Mississippi woman who earlier this year donated $150,000 earned in a lifetime of doing other people's laundry to endow scholarships for black students at the University of Southern Mississippi. Both women lived simply, and cared nothing about possessions. That may explain why they gave their money for opportunity, rather than plaques or buildings.

Besides money, both women left us a lesson. We can touch the future in many different ways. The childless can leave their imprint on the young for generations to come. The friendless can transform a community. The quietest can make a great noise.

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/05/opinion/anne-scheiber-s-gift.html

Christmas gifts of lasting value for family and friends that will make a mint

Gifts that will make a mint

December 7, 2011

Golden opportunities … whether investment advice or a charitable donation, there are many gift options that can give someone long-term joy.

From stocks in the Christmas stocking to courses and coins, Barbara Drury looks at presents that will foster prosperity and grow in value.

All the signs are there. The tinsel is up at the local shopping centre, the supermarket has been selling fruit mince pies for months, the letterbox is stuffed with gift catalogues and kindergarten children are penning their first letter to Santa.

It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas. But in a year when rich countries are battling debt and poor countries are battling dictators, floods and famine, the annual orgy of food, wine and gift giving poses more than the usual conundrum.

How to find gifts of lasting value for family and friends that won't be returned on Boxing Day?

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Or, worse still, end up as landfill?

Money has donned its paper party hat and consulted the Christmas-cracker oracle (as well as some investment experts) to divine a list of gifts that will keep on giving long after the Christmas tree is packed up for another year.

With the sharemarket stumbling backwards and forwards like the office drunk at the annual Christmas knees-up, who in their right mind would give shares to someone they cared about, right? Wrong.

If you are buying shares for children, or any long-term investor, they may have a time horizon of 10 or 20 years. ''While markets are visibly risky now, for the long term it is more advantageous to buy now than it has been for years,'' the editor of the Sound Money, Sound Investments newsletter, Greg Canavan, says.

INVESTMENT IDEAS

Parents and grandparents often want to help children financially and teach them the principles of long-term investing. A parcel of quality shares, or units in a managed fund, is a gift that pays dividends for a lifetime.

Not only can the investment be used in future for a house deposit, university education or travel, the investment knowledge it provides is invaluable.

There are risks in this strategy, though, especially if you only plan to make a one-off gift of shares.

The managing director of Professional Wealth, Doug Turek, says buying units in an exchange-traded fund (ETF) would offer more diversification than a parcel of BHP shares.

''Dad gave me shares and it took 20 years for them to get above their purchase price,'' he says.

An ETF over a broad market index, such as the S&P/ASX 300, gives exposure to the top 300 Australian companies and can be bought and sold on the ASX like an ordinary share.

Canavan agrees that for a single purchase, it may be better to buy shares in a broad market fund, where a professional fund manager looks after a diversified share portfolio for you.

''LICs [listed investment companies] such as Argo and AFIC [Australian Foundation Investment Company] are well managed and pay good dividends. They are an option for people who don't want to keep an eye on stocks themselves,'' he says.

Independent share analyst and author Roger Montgomery says people buying shares for the long term, even for someone else, should aim to buy a diversified group of quality businesses.

''If you intend buying shares for children for the rest of their lives, you only need to buy small amounts. [The companies you invest in] can be any size … but don't buy all at once. Buy the same amount twice a year for two years to spread your risk,'' he says.

STOCK PICKS

Canavan also advises averaging into the market, buying income-producing stocks, such as Telstra and biopharmaceutical company CSL, and reinvesting the dividends.

Montgomery says four-wheel-drive accessories supplier ARB Corp, CSL, Cochlear, ANZ and Flight Centre are his top long-term picks. Although he would normally buy shares for his three children, aged 10, eight and two, this year he is thinking of giving them small gold ingots instead (see box).

The research director of the Intelligent Investor newsletter, Nathan Bell, picks QBE Insurance, Computershare and Woolworths as quality stocks that should stand the test of time.

''People will still be buying groceries from Woolworths in 20 years' time and you get a 5 per cent fully franked dividend yield along the way,'' he says.

Bell says QBE is a strong, well-managed insurance business with a dividend yield of 9.8 per cent but it's currently priced as though it will never make another dollar of investments. He says Computershare has just made a great acquisition in the US and is a well-managed business for the long haul.

Bell owns all three stocks and hopes they will provide for his children in future. But with six-month-old twins, he hasn't had time to think about shares for their Christmas stockings yet.

EXPERTS AND ANALYSIS

If someone in your life spends endless hours in the study trying to make sense of financial markets, you can help them lift their game and enjoy the company of like-minded people at the same time.

Give them an annual membership to one of three independent, non-profit investment associations or a subscription to an investment newsletter.

The Australian Investors' Association (AIA), Australian Shareholders' Association (ASA) and the Australian Technical Analysts Association (ATAA) all offer one-year subscriptions that provide educational material, regular conferences and seminars and the chance to join a local discussion group in capital cities and some regional centres.

The AIA is offering a Christmas special: join now and $130 buys 15 months' membership for the price of 12. This deal is only available over the phone on 1300 555 061.

The ASA offers several levels of membership from $115 a year, while the ATAA charges $290. The ATAA is aimed more at traders and offers diploma courses in technical analysis in conjunction with Kaplan.

Paul Ash, an ATAA member for 20 years, says the organisation has introduced him to a vast array of like-minded amateurs and experts. ''If ever I've got an investment problem, I can ask other people and they can usually provide a solution,'' he says.

AIA executive officer Silvana Eccles says a survey found that the most popular subscription newsletters among its members were the Eureka Report ($385 for one year), Morningstar (from $299 a year), Investing Times (from $250 a year) and Marcus Padley's Marcus Today($750 a year).

BRAIN FOOD

Books are synonymous with holidays on the sand or a plane trip overseas. They not only help while away the hours but help the reader make money.

Five years ago Janene Murdoch, of the Educated Investor bookshop, gave her 17-year-old son a copy of Scott Pape's The Barefoot Investor: Five Steps to Financial Freedom in Your 20s and 30s (Capstone, $26.95) in an attempt to teach him good money habits. The book hit the mark. Now aged 22 and one year into his first full-time job, her son has saved close to $40,000 towards his first home.

''It's scary how many 30-year-olds still haven't got their money sorted,'' Murdoch says. She recommends two of the current crop of investment books that provide food for thought, as well as an entertaining holiday read.

Bulls, Bears and a Croupier, by former journalist and fund manager Matthew Kidman (Wiley, $34.95), encourages readers to stop gambling and prepare to make money on the sharemarket when the bears finish their mauling. Although it aims to be an investment primer, it is also full of colourful characters and entertaining anecdotes.

Extreme Money: The Masters of the Universe and the Cult of Risk by Satyajit Das (Penguin, $32.95), is a well-written, illuminating explanation of the fine mess the so-called financial experts have got us into.

Even in bear markets, some people are making money. If you want to find out how, Murdoch suggests Alan Hull's Trade My Way (Wiley, $29.95).

For budding Warren Buffetts of any age heading off on holidays with an e-book reader, many investment titles are now available in digital form.

Lesley Williams, director of Major Street Publications, says all her best-selling investment titles are also available as e-books. Allan Trench's excellent A Share Buyer's Guide to Investing in the Australian Mining Boom retails for $34.95 on paper or $15.95 as an electronic download. Margaret Lomas's Investing in the Right Property Now! is $29.95 and $12.95 as an e-book.

SOUL FOOD

For the person who has everything, or is just difficult to buy for, why not consider making a charitable donation on their behalf.

For as little as $10, you can help SANE Australia help people suffering from mental illness, while $60 provides clean water for a family in a developing country and $69 will send a girl to school.

You can go straight to the charity of your choice and buy a gift card online or choose from hundreds of charities at karmacurrency.com.au.

Or perhaps the most precious thing you can give this Christmas is your time. The Salvation Army alone expects to help 300,000 Australians this Christmas. It will serve 8000 meals and distribute $20 million in vouchers, hampers and toys.

If you have time or money to spare, ring the local contact number for the Salvation Army or similar charities operating in your area to see how you can help. It may also be the best gift you can give yourself this Christmas.

Bright prospects for someone special

❏ Invoke wealth and prosperity with a 2012 Year of the Dragon gold coin.

❏ Start a share portfolio for a child and add small amounts regularly. (See ''Stock Picks'', below.)

❏ Alternatively, buy shares in a listed investment company or exchange-traded fund.

❏ Build investment know-how with a book or membership of an investors' association.

❏ Donate time or money to a good cause.

Precious metal investment could light up Christmas as prices soar

A sprinkling of gold is sure to brighten the mood of the most jaded investors this Christmas.

The gold price has jumped 25 per cent this year to its current level of about $1736 an ounce, a spectacular return in a year in which Australian shares have fallen 16 per cent and other mainstream asset classes are treading water at best.

Greg Canavan says gold could go to $US5000 ($5015) an ounce if central banks keep printing money to bail out debt-laden nations, boosting inflation as a result.

''Gold will be a better store of value [than other investments],'' says Canavan, who has 23 per cent of his personal portfolio in a mix of precious metals and gold shares for diversification.

It seems a lot of people agree with him. Gold coins, bars and baubles are flying out of the Perth Mint gift shop, according to retail sales manager Cathy Anza.

''[Some issues of] Year of the Dragon gold coins are selling out before the year even begins,'' Anza says.

The Chinese Year of the Dragon is meant to bring good fortune and prosperity and if next year is as wild a ride as the past one, an investment in gold may be one of the few ways to prosper.

Bullion coins and bars are priced according to the daily spot price for gold. Collectable coins and minted bars sell for a premium over the spot price, depending on the design and packaging. Most come in an attractive presentation case.

Year of the Dragon gold coins start at $339 for 1/10th of an ounce (2.83 grams) of 99.9 per cent pure gold. Children might also like a pure-gold Kangaroo Nugget, which start at $245.58 for 1/10th of an ounce.

For those who like their gold pure and simple, gold bars start at $927 for half an ounce.

Gold minted bars with the Perth Mint logo and kangaroo motif start from $322 for five grams.

All products can be bought online at perthmint.com.au and are delivered to your door.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/money/investing/gifts-that-will-make-a-mint-20111206-1ofvw.html#ixzz1ftLSkQZl

The Sin in Doing Good Deeds

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Nicholas D. Kristof


Op-Ed Columnist
The Sin in Doing Good Deeds



new_york_times:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/25/opinion/25kristof.html
if (acm.cc) acm.cc.write();

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: December 24, 2008
Here’s a question for the holiday season: If a businessman rakes in a hefty profit while doing good works, is that charity or greed? Do we applaud or hiss?
A new book, “Uncharitable,” seethes with indignation at public expectations that charities be prudent, nonprofit and saintly. The author, Dan Pallotta, argues that those expectations make them less effective, and he has a point.
Mr. Pallotta’s frustration is intertwined with his own history as the inventor of fund-raisers like AIDSRides and Breast Cancer 3-Days — events that, he says, netted $305 million over nine years for unrestricted use by charities. In the aid world, that’s a breathtaking sum.
But Mr. Pallotta’s company wasn’t a charity, but rather a for-profit company that created charitable events. Critics railed at his $394,500 salary — low for a corporate chief executive, but stratospheric in the aid world — and at the millions of dollars spent on advertising and marketing and other expenses.
“Shame on Pallotta,” declared one critic at the time, accusing him of “greed and unabashed profiteering.” In the aftermath of a wave of criticism, his company collapsed.
One breast cancer charity that parted ways with Mr. Pallotta began producing its own fund-raising walks, but the net sum raised by those walks for breast cancer research plummeted from $71 million to $11 million, he says.
Mr. Pallotta argues powerfully that the aid world is stunted because groups are discouraged from using such standard business tools as advertising, risk-taking, competitive salaries and profits to lure capital.
“We allow people to make huge profits doing any number of things that will hurt the poor, but we want to crucify anyone who wants to make money helping them,” Mr. Pallotta says. “Want to make a million selling violent video games to kids? Go for it. Want to make a million helping cure kids of cancer? You’re labeled a parasite.”
I confess to ambivalence. I deeply admire the other kind of aid workers, those whose passion for their work is evident by the fact that they’ve gone broke doing it. I’m filled with awe when I go to a place like Darfur and see unpaid or underpaid aid workers in groups like Doctors Without Borders, risking their lives to patch up the victims of genocide.
I also worry that if aid groups paid executives as lavishly as Citigroup, they would be managed as badly as Citigroup.
Yet there’s a broad recognition in much of the aid community that a major rethink is necessary, that groups would be more effective if they borrowed more tools from the business world, and that there is too much “gotcha” scrutiny on overhead rather than on what they actually accomplish. It’s notable that leaders of Oxfam and Save the Children have publicly endorsed the book, and it’s certainly becoming more socially acceptable to note that businesses can also play a powerful role in fighting poverty.
“Howard Schultz has done more for coffee-growing regions of Africa than anybody I can think of,” Michael Fairbanks, a development expert, said of the chief executive of Starbucks. By helping countries improve their coffee-growing practices and brand their coffees, Starbucks has probably helped impoverished African coffee farmers more than any aid group has.
Mr. Fairbanks himself demonstrates that a businessman can do good even as he does well. Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, hired Mr. Fairbanks’s consulting company and paid it millions of dollars between 2000 and 2007.
In turn, Mr. Fairbanks helped Rwanda market its coffee, tea and gorillas. Rwandan coffee now retails for up to $55 a pound in Manhattan, wages in the Rwandan coffee sector have soared up to eight-fold, and zillionaires stumble through the Rwandan jungle to admire the wildlife. President Kagame thanked Mr. Fairbanks by granting him Rwandan citizenship.
There are lots of saintly aid workers in Rwanda, including the heroic Dr. Paul Farmer of Partners in Health, and they do extraordinary work. But sometimes, so do the suits. Isaac Durojaiye, a Nigerian businessman, is an example of the way the line is beginning to blur between businesses and charities. He runs a for-profit franchise business that provides fee-for-use public toilets in Nigeria. When he started, there was one public toilet in Nigeria for every 200,000 people, but by charging, he has been able to provide basic sanitation to far more people than any aid group.
In the war on poverty, there is room for all kinds of organizations. Mr. Pallotta may be right that by frowning on aid groups that pay high salaries, advertise extensively and even turn a profit, we end up hurting the world’s neediest.
“People continue to die as a result,” he says bluntly. “This we call morality.”



I invite you to comment on this column on my blog, On the Ground. Please also join me on Facebook, watch my YouTube videos and follow me on Twitter.

Charitable giving in tough times

AP

Giving in tough times balancing act for companies

Thursday December 25, 11:51 am ET
By Dan Sewell, AP Business Writer

Cost-conscious companies work to keep up charitable programs as need rises in tough times

CINCINNATI (AP) -- She sat patiently in her wheelchair, as scurrying volunteers gathered ham, a turkey, canned goods, bread, and bags of potatoes, apples and pungent onions in a storeroom with sporadic drafts of frigid air from outside.
But Patricia Jordan had a warm feeling as she considered the bounty that would help feed her cash-strapped household of 14, including her disabled-veteran husband, their children and her sister's family. She, like others who flocked to the FreestoreFoodbank this week, were concerned about companies reducing donations this year because of the economy.
"I think a lot of us were worried about everybody cutting back, but so far it's panning out," Jordan said. "You can't ask for any more than that, that they're still willing to help."
The food bank opened 90 minutes early Monday, at 6:30 a.m., after workers found 200 people lined up, some waiting in near-zero cold since 4 a.m.
Across the nation, the needs are growing as the recession deepens and leads to more families struggling each day just to put food on the table. Feeding America, the largest domestic hunger-relief organization, says some 25 million people are going to such food banks, and the number is rising. And at the same time, many usual donors are facing their own budget problems.
FreestoreFoodbank expects to serve 16,000 households here this holiday season, and says demand has jumped 55 percent in the past two years, as jobless numbers rise and household budgets get stretched. But companies such as grocers Cincinnati-based Kroger Co. and Minneapolis-based SuperValu Inc.; Northfield, Ill.-based food maker Kraft Foods Inc.; and St. Louis-based bakery-restaurant chain Panera Bread Co., among others, have helped keep filling bags here.
"They get it," said John Young, the food bank's chief executive. "They understand that we're serving many more people this year. It's touching their customers, their communities."
Not all businesses are reacting in the same way, though. The New York-based Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy found that about a third of companies surveyed cut 2007 charitable giving in the slowing economy, and there are indications of more reductions this year. Sectors that showed declining giving in 2007 were financial, health care and utilities.
"It's a conflict, no question. How do you keep giving when you have laid off employees and are making other cost cuts?" said Charles Moore, the committee's executive director. But he stresses to corporate leaders the customer loyalty and connection to community they can build through giving -- benefiting business in the long run.
"You can be sure the community won't forget that the company stepped up," Moore said. "There is business to be gained at all levels by companies digging deeper in difficult times."
Companies have been hit by slower sales, volatile energy prices and higher raw materials costs, and some charitable organizations acknowledge that business leaders are under pressure to make profits, not give away money. Some ailing companies such as Ford Motor Co., which donates refrigerated vehicles to help get food donations to rural areas, have continued charitable programs, but at reduced totals.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the Bentonville, Ark.-based retail giant that has seen sales continue to grow in a discount-minded economy, has increased its giving of cash and food this year.
"We've made an extra effort to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our community partners and our customers who maybe need some extra help," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Deisha Galberth said. She said the company, which donated nearly $300 million to charity last year, will top that this year. Wal-Mart last week gave $400,000 in hard-hit Ohio alone, to help feed families and pay utility bills this winter.
Ross Fraser, spokesman for Feeding America, said companies have been creative in keeping up donations such as by diverting holiday gifts and year-end bonuses to charities. Kroger encourages customers to "round up" their bills at checkout to donate, and grocers are coming up with more in gleaning efforts, in which food that would be pulled off retail shelves because it's at sell-by dates or for other reasons is donated because it's still good to eat.
Companies are encouraging more employee volunteer efforts and also enlisting celebrities. Members of the Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings manned Salvation Army kettles outside Kroger stores in Michigan, while Cincinnati-based consumer products maker Procter & Gamble Co. has Tom Colicchio of Bravo TV's "Top Chef" in a meal donation program for its Cascade dishwashing brand, and Olympic gold-medal gymnast Shawn Johnson helped an effort to hand out more than 1.4 million tubes of Crest toothpaste to the needy.
Besides food, charities say there is also a big need for household items. P&G has a barrage of efforts involving its products, including Duracell battery donations and an Iams pet food pet adoption program at a time of rising abandonment of household pets. P&G also plans to provide millions of meals for children by tying consumer use of its coupons -- coupon-clipping has made a comeback during the recession --to company donations.
While cutting costs in other areas, P&G says it is keeping up charitable giving of well over $100 million a year.
"We are committed in good times and in bad," said Brian Sasson, global manager for P&G philanthropy. "We're proud to be helping families get what they need in these tough times."
http://www.feedingamerica.org/
http://www.corporatephilanthropy.org/
http://www.kroger.com/
http://www.walmart.com/
http://www.pg.com/
http://www.cascadefeedsamerica.com/

Source
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081225/still_giving.html