Working to Give: Philanthropies & Philanthropic Work

In the spirit of using his business acumen in his role as philanthropist, John Arnold gave a generous donation to setting up the Houston Food Bank.  Through the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, the Houston Food Bank received $10m grant so the facility could actually be constructed.  However, it was given with the understanding that officials there consider ways of using its system to tackle larger issues of poverty, unemployment and chronic health.  In addition, Arnold found it interesting that data from the food bank showed that most of its end users were actually not derelict and had places to live.  However, in times of fiscal difficulties, they chose to pay rent rather than use the money for food, resulting in hunger.  Thus the hunger in these cases was actually caused by unemployment – an issue Arnold found the Houston Food Bank was failing to address.

Today, when John Arnold donates funds, he does so through a “scientific” approach.  This makes sense given his success as a trader at Enron and then later, as founder of Centaurus. Maura Daly, Chief Development Officer of Feeding America, is impressed with the way John Arnold is using the scientific approach developed as a trader, to donate monies.  He says, “the great thing about the Arnolds is that they are not thinking small.  Most billionaires don’t have the luxury of putting forty years into solving a problem.”

John Arnold pushed CEO and President of the Houston Food Bank, Brian Greene to try to figure out a way to help the poor access other essential services to ultimately prevent the need for the food.  For example, perhaps job-training could be given?  Or, a way of getting healthier like programs to manage Type 2 Diabetes to stop individuals ending up with chronic health problems and not being able to work thus leading to inadequate financial resources with which to buy food.  In other words, Arnold works on a systematic approach to philanthropy.