October 7, 1999 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Sidney Kimmel is a charity’s dream.
With no family to provide for, the billionaire head of Jones Apparel Group, in New York, has no plans to leave an inheritance and is already working hard to give his entire fortune to worthy causes.
Mr. Kimmel, 70, whose company includes the Jones New York and Evan-Picone clothing labels and Nine West shoe retailer, appears on the latest Forbes magazine list of the 400 wealthiest Americans (October 11). For the first time, the magazine says, more than half of those listed — 268 — are worth $1-billion or more.
Mr. Kimmel has already donated $80-million of his $1-billion worth through his Sidney Kimmel Foundation, primarily to cancer-research organizations, the magazine says.
The son of a Philadelphia taxi driver, Mr. Kimmel entered the apparel industry after dropping out of college, but did not achieve great wealth until his seventh decade. It was only in the 1990s that he began giving substantial gifts to charity.
“I just didn’t have any discretionary money,” he tells Forbes.
Mr. Kimmel approaches his philanthropy the way he approaches his business, the magazine says — “careful study followed by quick implementation, then close monitoring of results, and the occasional cutting of losses. ‘I don’t like making mistakes,’ he says.”
In fact, in 1993, his foundation pledged $1.5-million to the Philadelphia Heart Institute of Presbyterian Medical Center. But it stopped paying at $900,000 when the institute closed amid a messy merger.
Mr. Kimmel is also a stickler for efficiency.
“I don’t like giving money when 25 per cent goes to overhead,” he tells the magazine. Indeed, his foundation has no staff members.
Mr. Kimmel’s will, Forbes says, directs his executors to give to charity all remaining assets, including everything in his foundation, within seven years of his death.
The article is available on the magazine’s Web site at http://www.forbes.com.
