I like Kalbolls answer- that said, there’s a much wider thing to do which is what most people with wealth do, and also shows some of the inherent dysfunction in the system.
Popular perception is the rich “give to charity” for tax write offs. While this is one strategy- it generally isn’t wise for those trying to maximize personal gain to simply write a check or hand a giant cash wad to a charity.
One thing you can do is start your own charity- “charity” can include something like a park, wildlife refuge, cultural organization, etc.
you can also be a paid employee of the charity- drawing a salary for your work.
Asides satisfying our requirement of giving to charity and giving certain tax incentives- there’s something deeper at work.
When you create a charity, you can choose what it is. That means you can try and find something that you enjoy or that serves your interests. You can draw a salary for engaging in activities you’d engage in anyway, or otherwise couldn’t get paid as well to do. These are simplified examples and such- but say you like hiking and nature. If you create a charity park space, you can enjoy the park while “working there.” The charity buys a hero for park agents- now you can drive that jeep all day. You can buy other equipment under the charity as well to enable your mission. Music programs, festivals, art productions or installations, animal programs… there are limits on the political activities of 501 charities- but you can also do some direct and indirect political action through your charity, and if you aren’t acting overly politically you can influence politics and cultures through social programs or other means via your charity.
Your charity can go towards Enabling films or it can be used to enhance a community- even your own community or a community close to you. Likewise, donating to the charities started by rich and influential people can buy off the record favor. A large donation to the charity ran by the mayors wife that funds the museum of art history the mayors wife enjoys… that’s basically a way for her to buy art that she likes. She can’t “own it” but effectively controls it, can see it any time, and has access to it. She doesn’t have the direct liabilities of ownership, and in perception, a person who’s home is full of millions of dollars in art is a target for those bemoaning inequity. A person running an art program to allow the public access to such works, and preserve history- they’re seen as more a sympathetic/likable person.
So the mayors wife basically runs this place as a hobby structured a a charity that pays her a salary. It makes the mayors wife happy, thus the mayor, and a little bit maybe comes back to the mayors families pockets to boot. So donating a large sum to that charity, that could buy you a little favor with the mayor. Regularly donating to such a charity- there doesn’t have to be an explicit understanding, It’s implied that you don’t bite the hand that feeds you. You don’t NEED to say to a savvy person “do me this favor or I’ll stop donating..” the implication is already there that when someone relies on your charity that to upset you might cost them patronage.
So there are all these little ways, charitable trusts or any number of things similar to what I mention above- that can be used- or abused (depending on your perspective…) so that you can actually benefit from giving charity- often theoretically more so than those your charity supposedly serves, far beyond a simple tax wrote off for money donated. And that’s without getting into “what does ‘charity’ mean here?” Because there are numerous legal definitions of the word, numerous philosophical or technical interpretations. In theory- giving your child or spouse money could be considered charity (generally not legally- but if we just use the definition of the word..) in the sense of the English definition of the word, “giving to charity” simply means to give to one in need. “Need” is Ill defined. You don’t “need” a home for example, but we would count A homeless person as “In need” etc.
If we are only talking about a legally defined charity- recognized by some governing body or such- the scope narrows but as stated previously- there’s still a whole world of ways to “game” the system to service you best.
Popular perception is the rich “give to charity” for tax write offs. While this is one strategy- it generally isn’t wise for those trying to maximize personal gain to simply write a check or hand a giant cash wad to a charity.
One thing you can do is start your own charity- “charity” can include something like a park, wildlife refuge, cultural organization, etc.
you can also be a paid employee of the charity- drawing a salary for your work.
Asides satisfying our requirement of giving to charity and giving certain tax incentives- there’s something deeper at work.