King of the forest

How would you spend $1,000,000,000? | Marvin Olasky

What would you do if you were king of the forest, the philanthropist-boss of a $17-billion-plus foundation, one required by law to give away at least $850 million each year?

To make it harder, here's a stipulation: You cannot give those big bucks to your own church or denomination, or to parachurch evangelistic programs. That's partly for their own protection: The yeast alone from all that dough would puff up any institution. But it's also because I want to press you to think hard about how to glorify God through activities beyond those involving worship, preaching, and teaching that most readily come to mind. (Note: I'm assuming that you've already tithed on your earnings.)

I'm modeling this thought experiment on a real situation: The Gates Foundation, which now has a $17 billion endowment, recently provided one of Bill's billions to set up college scholarships for members of minority racial and ethnic groups. The grant was announced as one designed to increase the number of minority kids going into math and science, but the actual plan is for scholarships to be usable in all kinds of majors, including education.