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Billionaire donates entire fortune - 12th October 2020

Irish American billionaire Chuck Feeney had an unusual dream: to give away his $8 billion fortune. This week, his dream finally came true.

Over the last 38 years, Feeney's charitable organisation has donated billions of dollars to charities and universities around the world. Some of these funds went to groups which campaign to end the death penalty in the US. He has also given large sums to projects in Ireland because he is the grandson of Irish immigrants. His donations helped found Ireland's University of Limerick.

Feeney’s wealth comes from his duty-free shopping company, DFS, which still runs over 420 duty-free shops at 11 international airports. But in 1982, the billionaire secretly set up 'The Atlantic Philanthropies' and transferred nearly all his money to the organisation.

Throughout his life, Feeney has been careful with money. He’s always flown in economy class, even when his family or colleagues were enjoying business class on the same flight. He’s never purchased cars or houses, and only ever has one pair of shoes. His attitude to money is very different from his DFS co-founder, Robert Miller, who has luxury homes all over the world.

Unfortunately, Feeney is now in poor health, but he has a message for other members of the super-rich. Many billionaires promise to donate their fortunes after their deaths, but Feeney recommends starting now. "To those wondering about giving while living: try it, you'll like it." After all, he asks, "how many yachts or pairs of shoes do you need?"