Carlyle Group cofounder and Co-Chairman David Rubenstein has the excellence of being one of many few main donors who has picked up a nickname: the patriotic philanthropist. For shut to twenty years, he has funded the restoration of a few of America’s most iconic monuments and the preservation of traditionally vital paperwork. Within the course of, he’s carved out a singular area of interest within the rarefied strata of billionaire mega-givers.
“I might say I stumbled into it,” he informed me. “I purchased copies of the Magna Carta in 2007, after which that led me to purchase different historic paperwork just like the Declaration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclamation. After which, by probability, I put up some cash to revive the Washington Monument, after which I began restoring different buildings, just like the Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Mount Vernon and Monticello.”
However Rubenstein’s civic-minded giving is only one a part of a much wider portfolio. He has supplied in depth help to universities the place he has served on the board, like Johns Hopkins College, and his alma maters, Duke College, which had supplied him with a scholarship, and the College of Chicago, the place he’s presently the chair. Medical analysis is one other huge precedence space. Rubenstein has made huge donations for a pancreatic most cancers heart at Memorial Sloan Kettering, a middle on listening to analysis at Johns Hopkins, and Goal ALS, an initiative to streamline discovery of recent approaches to treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Rubenstein has been the chairman of the board on the Kennedy Middle for the final 13 years, is presently the chairman of the Nationwide Gallery of Artwork, and has served on the boards of the Lincoln Middle and the Smithsonian. Earlier recipients within the arts and tradition house embrace the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Nationwide Museum of African American Historical past and Tradition. The Nationwide Zoo named its large panda habitat after the Rubenstein household in honor of his constant help. He additionally made a six-year, $20 million present to the Brookings Establishment to determine a fellowship program and supply help for its Overseas Coverage program.
In 1987, Rubenstein, William Conway and Dan D’Aniello cofounded the Carlyle Group, a world non-public fairness agency that presently manages $369 billion from 29 workplaces world wide. The agency is among the largest on the planet and developed a fame as a strong, typically controversial, Washington dealmaker with in depth political connections and investments in protection corporations. In 2021, Forbes reported that the 73-year-old Rubenstein, who was one of many 40 authentic signatories of the Giving Pledge, had donated an estimated $700 million to charitable causes over his lifetime. Final 12 months, he was solely one among 16 donors within the Forbes 400 record who obtained a rating of 4, which means he has given away 10 to 19.99% of his wealth. With a internet price of roughly $3.2 billion, Rubenstein, based on NPR, doesn’t do his giving by way of a basis or an LLC — “only a checkbook.”
I chatted with Rubenstein as he was making ready for the April 26 PBS premiere of “Iconic America,” a program which he hosts and government produces. The eight-part sequence explores American historical past by analyzing iconic nationwide symbols just like the Hollywood Signal, the American cowboy and the Golden Gate Bridge.
Rubenstein, who attributes his curiosity in historical past and civics to his childhood in blue collar Baltimore and his time within the White Home, the place he was a deputy home coverage advisor to President Jimmy Carter, mentioned the sequence enhances his philanthropy. “I like to coach Individuals about our historical past,” he mentioned, “and the idea that for those who study extra about historical past, you’re extra more likely to not repeat the errors of the previous, and also you’re extra seemingly to enhance upon the nice issues that occurred prior to now.”
Rubenstein’s philanthropy, TV work and his different academic choices — together with his dinners on the Library of Congress, the place he interviews American historians with members of Congress in attendance — comes as some funders are ramping up efforts to construct social cohesion and heal the physique politic throughout a time of deep polarization. I requested him if his efforts, which search to strengthen the democratic well being of the nation, fell alongside this continuum.
“Nobody particular person, even the president of the US, goes to unite all Individuals on each topic, in fact,” he mentioned. “And so I’m simply making an attempt to do my little piece as a personal citizen by offering some schooling about issues that may unite folks when it comes to explaining the historical past of those iconic symbols and allow them to really feel that they will study extra by studying extra about it. It’s like an appetizer — I’m making an attempt to whet peoples’ urge for food to study extra about American historical past, and hopefully, they’ll achieve this.”
Rubenstein’s patriotic presents sometimes movement by way of the Nationwide Park Service’s Nationwide Park Basis. Earlier help by way of the service helped to revive the Arlington Home, the U.S. Marine Corp Struggle Memorial, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and the Belmont-Paul Ladies’s Equality Nationwide Monument. The NPS has additionally used his funding to bolster academic sources, foster public entry and create new exhibit house. In 2020, Nationwide Public Radio printed a map of D.C.-area websites which have obtained presents of at the least $1 million, laying out the complete extent of efforts to form “the cultural panorama of the nation’s capital maybe greater than every other non-public citizen prior to now century.”
Given the unhappy state of our nationwide discourse and a funds deficit that’s $1.4 trillion and alter, I believe few readers will discover fault with Rubenstein bankrolling the restoration of treasured nationwide landmarks. The truth is, non-public residents play a vital function in drumming up help for capital prices. “Charitable {dollars} accounted for 90% of the funds for the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, for instance,” reported NPR’s Mikaela Lefrak. “After development, the Park Service stepped in to take care of it with federal funds.”
Nonetheless, Rubenstein’s prodigious help can increase considerations that extra non-public {dollars} for actions that historically fall inside Uncle Sam’s purview will incentivize our buddies in Washington to step again even additional. “It’s a problem for positive,” Rubenstein mentioned. “As a result of if I put up X {dollars} to repair the Lincoln Memorial, the federal government will say, ‘Properly, we don’t have to put up any cash as a result of a personal citizen has finished it.’ So that you’ll all the time run into the hazard whenever you’re coping with issues that folks suppose are government-oriented, whether or not the federal government will then put up cash, as properly.”
Slightly than appearing as a proxy authorities company, Rubenstein mentioned he hopes his efforts to revive landmarks and buildings will “incentivize others to do one thing, but in addition to form of present the federal authorities that there are non-public residents who might help, however they’ve to offer some help, as properly.”
Sixteen years after buying copies of the Magna Carta, Rubenstein’s civic-oriented strategy to giving has taken on a lifetime of its personal. “I can’t say it was deliberate properly prematurely with loads of forethought, however I did give you the concept doing issues to remind folks of the historical past and heritage of our nation may be referred to as ‘patriotic philanthropy,’” he mentioned. “That’s what I attempt to do — to remind folks of our historical past and our heritage, and hopefully, they’ll change into extra knowledgeable.”
Credit score:Source link
