TIME

233. Giving back is a birthright

CHARITY—HUMANITY’S most benevolent impulse—is a timeless and borderless virtue, dating at least to the dawn of religious teaching. Philanthropy as we understand it today, however, is a distinctly American phenomenon, inseparable from the nation that shaped it. From colonial leaders to modern billionaires like Buffett, Gates and Zuckerberg, the tradition of giving is woven into our national DNA.

Like so many of our social structures, the formal

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