What’s in This Week’s Issue…

Good morning. When billionaires say they’re “giving it all away“, we’re told it’s generosity.

When they set up foundations, it’s called legacy. And when the media applauds, it sounds like social good.

But if you’ve been following this newsletter, you already know: Nothing involving that much money is ever that simple.

So this week…

• 🏆 The Big Play: How billionaire charities really work, and why the world’s richest men keep giving their money away

• 💪 The Power Move: How Billionaires Engineer Legacy and How You Can Too

• 💵 Follow the Money: Was China behind the recent India-Pakistan conflict?

-GEN

🏆 The Big Play

The biggest money power story of the week.

Why Billionaires Really Give it All Away

Billionaire philanthropy is often framed as moral: giving back, doing good, changing lives.

But beneath the surface lies a strategy that’s less about generosity and more about control.

Because when the richest people in the world “give,” they don’t give to let go. They “give” to stay in the game.

This is how the billionaire charity engine really works:

1. The Illusion of Generosity

Let’s start with the numbers.

In the U.S., private foundations held nearly $1.48 trillion in assets in 2023. But how much do they give away each year? Just 5%: the legal minimum.

And that 5% often flows into donor-advised funds (DAFs) or other foundations, which have no minimum payout requirements at all.

Billionaires get the full tax break when they donate. But the actual money? It might not reach a single program for decades, or ever.

For example:

• Jeff Bezos’ $100M donation to the Obama Foundation in 2021 still has no public accounting, while Blue Origin continues to secure government contracts.

• Zuckerberg’s Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative is an LLC, meaning it can fund political causes, invest in for-profit startups, and avoid IRS rules.

• The Gates Foundation, with over $77B in assets, has held investments in Walmart, Coca-Cola, and Exxon, even while funding public health and climate programs.

What’s being sold to the public as charity is often just wealth parked, protected, and praised.

And that’s just the first layer.

2. The Tax Game of the Century

When a billionaire donates $1 billion in stock to a private foundation, here’s what happens:

• They get a full tax deduction on the stock’s market value, not what they originally paid.

• They avoid capital gains tax on the stock’s appreciation.

• They retain control over how the foundation uses that money, often forever.

In effect, they get:
→ Immediate tax savings
→ Long-term asset control
→ Public praise for being “generous”

All while shifting the cost onto taxpayers, because every billionaire tax deduction reduces public revenue.

You can see it in:

• A billionaire giving away $10B in stock can reduce their taxes by up to $3.7B. That’s money no longer available for schools, infrastructure, or public health.

• In 2020, America’s top 50 philanthropists gave $24.7B, but their tax deductions could have cost the U.S. Treasury billions in lost revenue.

The irony? The very public programs these billionaires claim to support often end up underfunded… while their personal charities thrive.

But the real power move isn’t even the tax savings. It’s what comes next.

3. The Business of Influence

Foundations aren’t passive pools of money. They’re influence engines, and billionaires have learned to weaponize them.

These charities:

• Fund think tanks and policy groups

• Shape academic research

• Influence legislation through “nonpartisan” grants

• Finance media narratives via nonprofit journalism

The biggest names in the game all do it:

• The Koch brothers used foundations to build a network of pro-deregulation policy orgs and university programs.

• Laurene Powell Jobs owns The Atlantic and funds several political causes through the Emerson Collective.

• The Gates Foundation influences global health and education policy through direct funding of the WHO, GAVI, and major U.S. school districts (often with minimal public accountability).

These organizations also:

• Hire family members as executives

• Invest in startups aligned with personal interests

• Lobby lawmakers under the banner of the public good

This is how billionaires don’t just avoid taxes. They reshape society, steer public debate, and write the rules, all while being applauded for it.

💪 The Power Moves

Playbook for understanding the game of power.

How Billionaires Engineer Legacy and How You Can Too

So the real lesson isn’t that billionaires are evil.

It’s that the system they operate in was built to reward financial engineering, not generosity.

Because in this system:

→ Giving is tax-advantaged
→ Control is institutionalized
→ And legacy is something you don’t have to die to pass on

So, what can we learn from all this?

The Takeaway

In a world where wealth is protected by systems, power is passed down not in dollars, but in infrastructure that others can’t question.

If you want to build real influence, don’t just aim to earn more. Aim to build systems that scale, persist, and protect your intent long after you’re gone.

That’s the billionaire blueprint.

💵 Following the Money

Three of the wildest financial and corruption stories from around the world.

#1 - Was China behind the recent India-Pakistan conflict? China’s role is deeper than previously known.

#2 - Two social media influencers were killed days apart in similar attacks

#3 - Judge rules Trump, DOGE illegally dismantled the US Institute of Peace

✨ Poll time!

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