--- title: The Givers by David Callahan Review: Downside of Billionaire description: In his new book, David Callahan writes that philanthropy today gives the wealthy political power over the poor canonical: https://time.com/4737961/the-givers-david-callahan/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-13T10:59:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:23:05.219Z article:section: Ideas og:title: 'The Givers' Review: The Pitfalls of Giving It All Away og:description: Philanthropy today grants the wealthy political power over the poor og:url: https://time.com/4737961/the-givers-david-callahan/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64abd6d3f29da2dc/6988c2a4cf40a81dd2c4736c/givers-book-david-callahan-wealth-billionaires-philanthropy.jpeg?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: The Givers by David Callahan og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'The Givers' Review: The Pitfalls of Giving It All Away twitter:description: Philanthropy today grants the wealthy political power over the poor twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64abd6d3f29da2dc/6988c2a4cf40a81dd2c4736c/givers-book-david-callahan-wealth-billionaires-philanthropy.jpeg?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _The Givers_ Review: The Pitfalls of Giving It All Away by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Apr 13, 2017 10:59 AM UTC  Knopf by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Apr 13, 2017 10:59 AM UTC Are billionaire philanthropists uniquely good for society? Not always, writes David Callahan in [_The Givers_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1101947055/?tag=timecom-20). The author argues that while the decision to spend massive amounts of money on causes ranging from curing disease to remaking public education may seem wholly positive, megafoundations with recognizable names can have undemocratic effects. “If you don’t favor [same-sex marriage](http://time.com/4706878/neil-gorsuch-confirmation-jim-obergefell/) or [charter schools](http://time.com/4626434/education-school-vouchers/) or shutting down [coal](http://time.com/4728550/trump-coal-west-virginia/) plants,” he writes, “you might not be too thrilled with how some billionaires have been deploying their money — subsidized, I should add, by your own tax dollars,” since donations even to foundations that specifically work to shape policy are often deductible. At issue for Callahan is not so much the impulse to give but outdated government incentives to mix giving with advocacy. This amounts, he says, to the wealthiest people having a louder voice than ordinary citizens. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4737961/the-givers-david-callahan/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4737961/the-givers-david-callahan/"},"headline":"The Givers Review: The Pitfalls of Giving It All Away","datePublished":"2017-04-13T10:59:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:23:05.219Z","description":"Philanthropy today grants the wealthy political power over the poor","url":"https://time.com/4737961/the-givers-david-callahan/","keywords":["Books","philanthropy"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64abd6d3f29da2dc/6988c2a4cf40a81dd2c4736c/givers-book-david-callahan-wealth-billionaires-philanthropy.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64abd6d3f29da2dc/6988c2a4cf40a81dd2c4736c/givers-book-david-callahan-wealth-billionaires-philanthropy.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Givers by David Callahan","caption":"The Givers by David Callahan book cover","creditText":"Knopf","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4737961/the-givers-david-callahan/","name":"The Givers Review: The Pitfalls of Giving It All Away"}}]}] ```