March 17, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
As public outrage grows for the $165-million in bonuses handed out to American International Group employees, one person has a novel suggestion: give the money to charity.
Richard Brewster, a nonprofit consultant in Virginia, suggests that the bonuses should support the Starr Foundation, a New York philanthropy established by Cornelius Vander Starr, an entrepreneur who founded the company that would eventually became AIG.
The Starr Foundation’s assets have been devastated by recent stock-market turmoil, declining 46.5 percent in 2008.
“The foundation could ask someone of high reputation in the philanthropy world to oversee how the money is spent and report to the public how much has been received,” Mr. Brewster writes in an e-mail message to The Chronicle.
“The government may yet find ways of recovering the money through legal action but, in the mean time, why not give the employees the opportunity to put the bonuses to good social use?” he asks.
What do you think? If the AIG employees gave their bonuses to the Starr Foundation or another charitable effort, would that ease the public’s anger? Click on the comment button below to share your views.
