Generation BIG

As if the bombardment of economic news isn’t enough to push us to the edge, today’s WSJ had an opinion letter “Philanthropy and Its Enemies”, by Naomi Schaefer Riley. If you are a thinking individual, especially an individual passionate about making the world a better place through your charitable deeds, you will sense a call [...]

“Smile Pinki, A Real-World Fairy Tale” won the Oscar for Documentary Short. The movie is the story of a how BIG charity Smile train saved a young girl in India who was born with a cleft lip.

If I can say anything positive about tax code it is this: It sure makes charity rewarding. Charitable giving reduces not only your income tax burden, but also escapes the mother of all taxes, the estate tax. Most wise people I’ve met or read about, whether or not they are faith-based, believe in some principle [...]

Sir John Templeton died recently at the ripe old age of 95. If you want a study in a life well lived, you would be hard pressed to find a better example than Sir Templeton. In a Wall Street Journal column that followed his death, a few short paragraphs hit on just a few of [...]

The following is an excerpt from the upcoming book, Generation BIG. In the book, I profile several BIG people, including Bruce Cohn. The following is from the chapter about Cohn whom I visited at his winery, B.R. Cohn, in December. – Jeffrey Smith “In the beginning, back in the early ‘70′s, I’m telling you, we [...]

Nicholas Negroponte has a big dream — to eliminate poverty, create peace, and save the planet — and he thinks computers will make this possible. Negroponte is the founder and chairman of One Laptop Per Child. There are roughly 2 billion children whom OLPC hopes to reach. That’s billion with a “B.”

Bold, innovative and generous people are in every corner of America. We want to find them, celebrate them, and connect them with you. No offense to those we send to Congress, but we believe that BIG people are the true representatives of 21st-century America. That’s why we’ve launched BIG Across America. We plan to find [...]

Socially responsible investing. For the last decade it’s been all the buzz in financial planning circles. The idea: invest in companies that promote social good (such as environmental protection, human rights, consumer protection, etc.) while divesting from companies that do objectionable things. I have great respect for anyone principled enough to invest in this way. [...]

Brian Mullaney understands you can’t achieve BIG things without a BIG goals. For Mullaney — the co-founder and president of Smile Train, the world’s leading cleft lip and palate charity — audacity is a virtue. Last month, Mullaney traveled to China, called a press conference, and predicted that within five years China would become the [...]