The Steeple Times

Tag: Philanthropist

  • Backing Best for Britain

    Backing Best for Britain

    Gina Miller achieves 1,000% of target in less than 24 hours in crowdfunding drive to fund tactical voting initiative against hard Brexit

     

    On Wednesday, businesswoman and philanthropist Gina Miller launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise £10,000 to “support the country’s biggest tactical voting drive ever and stop extreme Brexit”. Within twenty-four hours, that target was smashed and as of 10:30am Thursday morning, the total amount raised stands at £110,000.

     

    Of the initiative, which will fund a group launching next week named ‘Best for Britain’, Mrs Miller told The Guardian:

     

    “We want to build the biggest tactical voting effort in UK history to ensure that candidates across the country that promise to do what’s best for Britain in the Brexit process get the extra support they need to win”.

     

    “If the deal the next government negotiates doesn’t match up to our current terms, MPs should do what’s best for Britain and reject it. We will be asking MPs to pledge to keep an open mind and not be bullied into giving the next government a blank cheque for the final deal”.

     

    “There isn’t time to organise a formal progressive alliance. We have to do what we can in the time available. We need to re-energise people about the importance of voting tactically”.

     

    “We need to have a galvanising moment. We need to have a strategy and a structure… We have to put aside egos. It is about being pragmatic”.

     

    On the page itself, Miller gives further detail of how the money raised will be spent. She remarked:

     

    “We will support candidates who campaign for a real final vote on Brexit, including rejecting any deal that leaves Britain worse off”.

     

    “We will use the money to back candidates who pledge to support a full and free vote on the Brexit deal. We will also work with organisations with the same goals. The money raised will not pay staff salaries”.

     

    Best for Britain has already appointed Eloise Todd, previously executive director of policy for anti-poverty organisation the ONE Campaign, as a campaign director. She added:

     

    “We will support different parties and independents, and organisations working in this space. We are not party political. We stand for democracy in this country and a constitution that respects proper balance of powers and doesn’t railroad the country into an extreme Brexit”.

     

    To support Gina Miller’s fundraising drive, click here. The maximum donation any individual can make is £499.

     

  • Remembering Michael Bienes

    Remembering Michael Bienes

    Witty Fort Lauderdale based philanthropist Michael Bienes passes away

     

    Philanthropist Michael Bienes sadly died of cancer on 5th April according to the Sun Sentinel.

     

    New York born Mr Bienes, a multi-millionaire many times over until falling prey to Bernard Madoff’s crooked Ponzi scheme, was known for hosting lavish parties and supported everything from the Holy Cross Hospital in Broward County to the Royal Opera House in London. He was generous to a tee and known for his dry sense of humour and wit.

     

    The 80-year old, whose accountancy firm, Avellino & Bienes was an early feeder fund of Bernard L. Madoff Securities, leaves a widow, Dianne. She told the Sun Sentinel:

     

    “Michael was never a man who would take advantage of anyone simply because he was always afraid of doing anything wrong. He loved people and valued the relationships he cultivated”.

     

    Michael Bienes will be missed by many in both America and Britain. We offer our condolences to his wife and family.

     

  • Charlot Malin (1969 – 2017)

    Charlot Malin (1969 – 2017)

    Oslo born, San Francisco based interior designer and philanthropist Charlot D. Malin had a day named in her honour by The City and County of San Francisco in November 2016. A mother of twins and the co-founder of Troon Pacific Inc. with her husband Gregory, “forward-thinking” Malin worked on properties for George Lucas and Robert Redford and supported everything from the San Francisco Opera Guild to the Voss Foundation. She considered “health the ultimate luxury” and loathed microwave ovens.

  • Douglas Durst

    Douglas Durst

    “Real estate royal” Douglas Durst had his leg amputated in 2015 and is the brother of the cross-dressing body dismemberer and suspected killer Robert Durst. The part owner of one of America’s top organic farms, Durst is a prominent environmentalist and owns, as part of his $5.2 billion portfolio, a $100 million or 10% stake in the new One World Trade Centre building. Of him, Donald Trump once bizarrely tweeted: “Personally, I think Douglas Durst’s brother got screwed by Douglas – no wonder he’s angry”.

     

     

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  • The Duke of Westminster

    The Duke of Westminster

    A tribute to Gerald Cavendish, the 6th Duke of Westminster (1951 – 2016)

     

    Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, the 6th Duke of Westminster was a man of duty dedicated to his country, its military and to the countryside he so loved.

     

    Described in a poignant tribute on the Grosvenor Estate’s website as “distinctly down-to-earth” and “rarely seen without a Diet Coke and a cigarette (later electric)”, the Duke – one of the country’s finest shots – was not one to mince his words and not one to shirk from a row. He took Westminster Council to court when they proposed selling off a housing estate in Pimlico intended by his ancestors specifically for the use of the working classes and won and then subsequently quit the Conservative Party in 1993 after a row with John Major over his leasehold reform legislation. At the time, he stated: “I had to leave because of my own conscience. I took a moral stand”.

     

    Not without his flaws – including a little bit of a scandal in 2008 involving a New York escort service – and someone prone to sleepless nights and depression, the Duke may have been a billionaire but he also had the common touch. Though he made the founding gift of £50 million to the Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre in 2011 and supported farmers hit by the 2001 foot and mouth crisis with a £500,000 donation, he was just as likely to be found offering words of encouragement and sharing laughter in the communities he so especially treasured in Cheshire and at Abbeystead in Lancashire.

     

    In 1995, appearing on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs, the Duke remarked:

     

    “In the context of eternity, if I am lucky I might live 70 years, but this estate has been with us for 3, 4, 5, 600 years. I am only a mere flicker in the process of time. It is what I do with it, rather than what I am worth, that I believe is more important”.

     

    Modest to his core and a man with a loathing for such tags as “environmentalist” and “philanthropist”, the Duke left the Grosvenor Estate in a far better state than he found it in 1979. He may have been born with a silver spoon, but he understood that with rights came responsibilities.

     

     

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  • Daniela Zahradnikova

    Daniela Zahradnikova

    Daniela ZahradnikovaThe 42-year old ex-girlfriend of 86-year old New York art collector Henry Buhl was christened a gold-digger after she sued him for £1.1 million ($1.5 million) after claiming that he had said he would provide for her “for the rest of her life”. (more…)

  • Brooke Barzun

    Brooke Barzun

    Art curator, philanthropist and ambassador’s wife Brooke Barzun is of Pilgrim Fathers ancestry and hails from the family that controls Jack Daniel’s. (more…)

  • What makes art sell?

    What makes art sell?

    The Steeple Times’ first panel debate at the Library members’ club featured four art experts and the question: “What makes art sell?” (more…)

  • The Bentley of Taste

    The Bentley of Taste

    Bentley R-Type Continental Fastback originally owned by the son of the founder of clothing giant Burton heads to auction at the Salon Privé sale
    (more…)

  • Debbie Bancroft

    Debbie Bancroft

    Debbie BancroftDebbie Bancroft spends her days amongst the upper echelons of New York and Southampton yet considers the word “socialite” to be “meaningless”. (more…)