Donald Bren Quotes

I would say to young entrepreneurs and budding philanthropists - are you giving to feel good or do good?

I always thought that I would spend the first half of my life making money so I can spend the second half of my life giving it all away. And one of the defining moments of my life was when I realized that I could do both at the same time with TOMS.

With TOMS, I found a way to create sustainable giving and consistently help those who are in need.

If you've been fortunate enough to have some success in business, I think it's important to put something back.

The future of TOMS is really creating a whole new business model of this one-for-one giving and expanding the TOMS model from shoes into other products as well.

How I see my career is very much as an entrepreneur in the field of philanthropy.

If you could help millions of people, you can certainly make millions of dollars. I try to influence everyone I know to be a giver because the person that benefits most by giving is the giver.

We learned early on that if we help enough people, the money will come.

Giving does not just feel good, but it's really, really good for business, and it's good for your personal brand.

Jessica Jackley has a gift for making people want to fork over their cash. To total strangers. Far, far away.

As a parent and a citizen, I'll take a Bill Gates (or Warren Buffett) over Steve Jobs every time. If we must have billionaires, better they should ignore Jobs's example and instead embrace the morality and wisdom of the great industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.

There is the expression of selfishness and there is the expression of selflessness - but economists or theoreticians never touched that part. They said: 'Go and become a philanthropist.' I said, 'No, I can do that in the business world, create a different kind of business - a business based on selflessness.'

I think all philanthropy invests in product innovation, whether in a vaccine or a new kind of product of one sort or another, and I think we'll all continue to do that.

It's hard to be a good philanthropist in China.

I have been very fortunate to be successful in business, and I believe that it is right that people who have this type of wealth should give something back into society.

I like being successful. Giving back is just a part of that.

I made a lot of money, and I want to give something back to my country.

Basically, what we've done is, every year we take half the money and allow people who've helped us in the industry to give it away. One year, the ladies who put the pretzel bags in the boxes got to give it away.

Philanthropy is the thing that I am really excited about, and having success means I can do more.

My brother and I made a pact that every deal we do has to have a charitable component; otherwise, we don't do it.

I have a philanthropy advisor, Hari Menon, who was earlier at the Gates Foundation.

It was only in 2001 that I set up a foundation, Arghyam. That was pretty much to learn the ropes of how to give, what to do.

Personal philanthropy must be separated from corporate philanthropy. Personal philanthropy is more about giving back to society, or giving forward, as it is now referred to.

What's success all about? What's philanthropy all about? Let's think of our legacy, following in the footsteps of some great Americans like the Carnegies and the Mellons who used their wealth for quality purposes.

Philanthropy is lost. The human spirit is suppressed. Most people want a legacy; they want to give something back, a library, a hospital wing, a donation to their church. This is a form of socialism that must go.