The legend of Robin Hood

This is a great article about the Robin Hood Foundation -- a wonderful organization that I know well.  Gotta love this:

But it is here in Brooklyn that Jones pursues his biggest passion. "I love education because I love kids," he tells me in his assertive drawl. "If I retired, I'd love to teach second, third, or fourth grade. I also like education because I think it has the greatest multiplicative powers in terms of the ultimate good you're going to do for the hours and dollars expended."

Robin Hood gave grants to 21 charter schools as well as 24 regular public schools in 2005. "Fifteen years ago the only way you could impact inner-city kids who didn't have proper educational services was through an after-school program, which is a very poor substitute for a great school day," Jones says. "That changed because the charter movement began, and so my priorities shifted."

Don't charter schools draw precious resources away from other public schools?

Jones makes no apologies: "Charter schools are the best thing that ever happened to education in New York City because they provide competition to regular public schools and raise the bar that everyone is trying to attain. They provide thought leadership for other schools, so again there's a multiplicative impact."

My only quibble with the article is that it doesn't say this this part is about KIPP!

At a break in the auction, a group of charter-school students perform a rap orchestrated by Jay-Z. "Read, baby, read," the kids chant. "You got to read, baby, read." Minutes later Paul Jones bounds up on stage and does his own Southern-man chicken-dance version: "You got to give, baby, give," Jones intones. "The more you give, the better you feel. The better you feel, the better you'll trade."

The crowd knows what's coming now: the serious money part of the auction. Robin Hood is raising funds to build a charter high school. "We are looking for a couple of $1 million bids for naming rights to the school's large facilities," announces Niven. And the sticks go up. Twelve of them. Niven and Jones then drum up 30 bids of $250,000 each for classrooms.

To reward all that giving, there's a performance by Beyoncé to end the evening. The final tally? In a single night Robin Hood hauls in $48 million. Some $20 million is earmarked for the new school - which will be matched by the board, $2.25 for each $1. And New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein, who at one point during the gala, at Jones's urging, stands and takes a bow, has said the city, in turn, will match the combined sum (as well as the amount of a tax credit). Overall, the $20 million for the school will grow to $180 million.

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The legend of Robin Hood

How the leaders of the hedge fund world have banded together to fight poverty - taking gobs of money from the rich, applying strict financial metrics in giving it away, and making philanthropy cool among the business elite.

By Andy Serwer, Fortune senior editor-at-large

September 8 2006: 10:03 AM EDT

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/09/18/8386204/index.htm?postversion=2006090810

(Fortune Magazine) -- The idea behind one of the most innovative and influential philanthropic organizations of our time sprang from one of the more boneheaded macroeconomic calls ever made on Wall Street. Or as hedge fund maestro Paul Tudor Jones tells it, "The biggest error I've ever made had the best possible outcome."

The story begins in the summer of 1987. Stock prices were soaring, but so, too, were interest rates. The then 32-year-old Jones - who had made buckets of money during the go-go 1980s - was getting nervous. That September he told his investors that the stock market reminded him of 1929 and a crash was inevitable.

Even after October's brutal 23% one-day drop, Jones remained apocalyptic. He called up fellow hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin and pleaded, "It's happening. We're going into a great depression. We've got to do something about it. I want to start a foundation to help, and I'd like you to be involved."

Of course, Jones was dead wrong about a depression, but that hasn't mattered. He has gone on to become a Wall Street titan, with some $14.7 billion under management. More to the point, his brainchild, a charity called Robin Hood -which was born out of the direst predictions - has become a paragon, forging a new model for philanthropy and attracting heaps of cash from an enviable roster of high-profile benefactors.

In the broadest terms, Robin Hood does what its name suggests: It takes from the rich (especially its own board members) and gives to the poor. But even though its mission is focused-to fight poverty in New York City - and the roughly $525 million it has distributed pales in comparison to what Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have given, Robin Hood's influence is extraordinary.