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I Want More Risk-Taking in Philanthropy

Samuel Arbesman · 11 Sept 2025

The piece opens with

The wealthy often take great risks to make money but seem risk-averse in giving it away

Their wordsAnd yet it seems like we have the following situation: while wealthy people might have taken lots of risk to make their money, they often seem risk-averse when it comes to giving it away.

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Samuel Arbesman did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

  1. Our reading

    The wealthy often take great risks to make money but seem risk-averse in giving it away

    Their wordsAnd yet it seems like we have the following situation: while wealthy people might have taken lots of risk to make their money, they often seem risk-averse when it comes to giving it away.

  2. Our reading

    Interesting and unconventional rich donors should be celebrated, and philanthropic culture needs to shift

    Their wordsAnd perhaps that is the key here: we must valorize the interesting and weird rich people, encouraging them to try even more of this kind of thing. There needs to be a shift in the philanthropic culture.

  3. Our reading

    Philanthropic culture can be shifted toward more experimentation, with enough support to do it properly

    Their wordsNevertheless, I think the philanthropic culture can be shifted, ensuring that there is more experimentation, and with enough support to actually do such experiments properly.

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