Now one dictionary definition of philanthropy is the desire to promote the welfare of others especially by giving generously to good causes.
And today the Coutts "Million Dollar Donors Report" has been published and it lists the biggest philanthropists among the world's dollar millionaires.
The UK doesn't do badly on the global list, 1.36 billion dollars was given away by British millionaires in 2013 compared to 1.01 billion in Russia. But the US gives the most with a total of 16.92 billion dollars.
We did a small survey in a coffee shop in central London and asked people there if they suddenly became billionaires, would they give their money away or keep it.
I'd keep enough to myself, but I will definitely give a lot away. I would just set up a bakery perhaps. And I would give money to people to do things I know they definitely wanted to do.
Family and then obviously some to myself.
And I start considering giving away to other people.
A selection of views among people at a London coffee shop.
Marcelle Speller is a British multi-millionaire and philanthropist. And she is also the founder and chief executive of Localgiving.com which supports small charities here in the UK. She plans to give away almost all of her money during her lifetime. My colleague Dan Damon asked her。
Why does she want to do this? Is it out of guilt? Or is she just a naturally generous person?
It's not guilt. It's a way of building a legacy. But it's also the most joyous thing you can do. It is just so satisfying to see the effect of what you can do. I made my money quite late in life when you know what you want in life. And in my case it wasn't a Lamborghini.
Once people know that you are in that giving mood and you have some money, they will undoubtedly come to you and a lot of them will have ulterior motives or the wrong motives. So how do you make sure that you are giving in a way that will be effective?
Well, because I'm working full-time at Localgiving.com, I can say "Look, I love what you are doing. I'm sure it's wonderful. But everything I'm doing now is focused on Localgiving. It's gonna have all my money eventually. I have limited amount of money. But that's what I'm going to be doing and I want to focus on that."
And tell us about some of the projects that you have supported.
Some pretty difficult things like women who've been trafficked. What inspires me is the number of people out there in our communities who see that there is a problem and do something about it. I mean the classic one is the street angels who gave out into our city centers on one Saturday night. And they'd given away thousands of flip-flops to stop girls who've got frankly drunk, you know when the ……
Falling off the heels.