If you were going to spend $2bn to improve the world, where would you put it? Forty-odd years ago, Ewing Marion Kauffman, a self-made billionaire from Missouri, was faced with just that choice. He took a rather unusual decision. Instead of using his self-made billions to battle homelessness or help the poor, he decided to chase the Great American dream. More specifically, he founded an institute, which takes his name, in Kansas City, to promote entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurial ideal. These days the Kauffman Foundation is one of the largest private foundations in America, topped only by groups such as the Ford Foundation or the giant Bill and Melinda Gates charity.
如果你打算花20亿美元来改善世界，你会花在哪儿？40多年前，密苏里州白手起家的亿万富翁尤因•马里昂•考夫曼(Ewing Marion Kauffman)就面临着这样的选择。他做了个相当不同寻常的决定：他没有用白手创造的巨额财富去帮助无家可归的人和穷人，而是决定追逐“伟大的美国梦”。更确切地说，他在堪萨斯城创办了一家以自己名字命名的研究所，以帮助企业家和弘扬创业理想。如今，考夫曼基金会(Kauffman Foundation)已是美国最大的私人基金会之一，仅次于福特基金会(Ford Foundation)及庞大的比尔和梅琳达•盖茨(Bill and Melinda Gates)基金会等集团。