On Monday, 9 October, Charles "Chuck" Feeney, co-founder of the Duty-Free chain, died in San Francisco at the age of 92. Forbes recognized him not only as a successful businessman but also as the James Bond of philanthropy. During his lifetime, he anonymously donated more than $8 billion to charity.

Forbes journalist Stephen Bertoni first described the story of businessman Chuck Feeney in 2012, explaining how the entrepreneur got on the Forbes 400 Richest Americans list in 1988 with a fortune of $1.3 billion. Later, it turned out that Forbes made a mistake: Feeney's fortune was much higher because at that time he had transferred the bulk of his assets to the Atlantic Philanthropies charity. Only a few people in his inner circle knew about this - until 1997, when Bernard Arnault's LVMH group bought shares in Duty-Free Shoppers.

The lesson that Feeney wanted to teach young philanthropists was that don't wait until you are old to give away your money, or worse, until you die. Instead, make significant donations while you still have energy, connections and influence. This is how you create a "wave". "People who have money have commitments," said Feeney.

As a philanthropist, he pioneered the idea of "Be a philanthropist while you're alive". It meant spending most of your wealth on charity instead of funding a foundation after you die. "Since you can't take your money with you to the next world, why not give it all away, control where it goes in your lifetime, and see the results for yourself?" he said.

Over the past four decades, Feeney has donated more than $8 billion to charities, universities and foundations around the world through his Atlantic Philanthropies foundation. He set aside about $2 million for his and his wife's retirement and gave the rest to charity. And he gave it anonymously. While many wealthy philanthropists engage an army of PR people to talk about their bosses' donations, Feeney has gone to great lengths to keep his generosity a secret.

As a reminder, on 14 September 2020, Feeney completed a 40-year charitable mission and signed the document closing Atlantic Philanthropies. The ceremony was broadcast on Zoom and attended by Bill Gates and former California Governor Jerry Brown. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, sent a letter of gratitude to Feeney for his work.