11/16/1997

HE'S GIVING IT AWAY Ted Turner's charitable impulses seem to be intensifying as he ages.

By Jill Vejnoska - Staff, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

He's good with words, suggesting that in this family, anyway, power talking may well be an inherited trait. Even better, Teddy Turner is willing to "go deep." Money, family matters ---the eldest son of the billionaire media magnate genially answered all such personal questions in a recent interview, hesitating only when the conversation turned to the subject of Ted Turner's coming birthday. What, if anything, did the 34-year-old Turner plan to give his father for his 59th birthday? "They're very, very hard to buy for," Turner said, referring to his father and his stepmother, Jane Fonda. "It's not about the money, it's about the thought. And the uniqueness. And he's very practical." Indeed, what do you give the man who has everything? Not to mention one who's bound and determined to give much of it away. Turner and his four siblings may have unwittingly given their father the best gift of all a few years ago when, as trustees of his recently formed foundation ---along with Fonda ---they met to vote on a number of environmental grant proposals. "We figured it was all set up and he would be 'Dad' like dads do," Teddy Turner laughingly recalled. "I can remember the first vote we outvoted Dad on, we thought it was the end of the world. But he thought it was the greatest thing. I think it was part of the transition he wanted ---'Think on your own; do the right thing. Because I'm not always going to be here to tell you what to do.' " The Ted Turner who will celebrate his birthday Wednesday is a man increasingly trying to do the right thing. Even while riding high atop his thriving corporate empire, he's focusing on ensuring that his hard-won business riches will literally be put to good use for years to come. He may not be going anywhere for a long time, but that hasn't stopped Turner from already carving off huge chunks of his personal fortune for causes he's committed to, or from investing in the next generation of Turners both the spirit and the letter of his philanthropy. In the process, the people who know Turner best say, he's creating a multifaceted legacy: He's giving away money, quietly and thoughtfully through his Turner Foundation, and on his own, in the colorfully exuberant way only he can. He's become an outspoken advocate for and caretaker of the environment. And he's providing his children with the experiences and resources to learn how to be good philanthropists now, so they can help protect the planet well into the future. "What a great thing to do, to bring a family together and think about how to do good things for the future," said Peter Bahouth, executive director of the Turner Foundation. "Do you know how big it is for someone who's known as a businessman to say there are other values to care about besides money?" Huge gift meets with suspicion If anyone in the world missed the news of Turner's $ 1 billion pledge to the United Nations in late September, it wasn't because the benefactor tried to remain anonymous. Indeed, the flip side to Turner's unexpected announcement, made in a ballroom filled with some 2,000 people and repeated a little later in a rollicking, impromptu interview on "Larry King Live," was a very public challenge issued to other rich people. Give as generously as me, Turner seemed to be saying. It feels really good, and, even better, you can use what you're doing to tweak others for what they're not. "It's wonderful the way it was a big huge 'shame on you' to Jesse Helms and all those others who've shirked their responsibility to the U.N.," said Eric Guthey, a University of Michigan assistant professor who's working on a book on Turner's public image. Like almost everything involving Turner, in fact, the U.N. pledge created a certain amount of controversy. To much of the world, he was still best-known as the outspoken, outsized figure who'd created CNN and colorized "It's a Wonderful Life" ---then very publicly and profitably merged his empire with Time Warner's. Turner's philanthropic profile was much lower and, at least in some quarters, open to question. Why didn't he give more generously in Atlanta, The New York Times wondered? Did Turner want to be president, USA Today asked? Was it all some sort of tax dodge? Where does such generosity suddenly come from, anyway? Nothing all that sudden about it, say the people who know Turner best. They understand his reasons for building a steady track record of philanthropy to the point that his 6-year-old foundation will make $ 25 million in grants next year (up from $ 16 million in 1997 and about $ 1.7 million in its first year) and his U.N. pledge accounts for about one-third of his total net worth of $ 3.2 billion. He doesn't just like doing it, they say. It's almost like he has to. "I think as he gets older, there is a greater feeling of urgency in him," said Jennie Turner Garlington, 28, who regularly uses things she's learned as a Turner Foundation trustee to inform her work as an associate producer of documentaries in CNN's environmental unit, and vice versa. "You can't wait to do something, he's saying. There's no time to wait." Turner's own enlightenment didn't come overnight. After his U.N. announcement, he said he'd had to "learn to give." He's also had to learn what to give to. "When he was younger, he wasn't as concerned about the environment," said Teddy Turner, who points out that his father grew up sailing, hunting and fishing and gradually came to understand the ramifications of things like water pollution and encroaching development. "It's not like 'Oh no, that power plant is going to destroy fisheries,' but more that when we went duck hunting each year, the number of ducks was down. There was no habitat left." Turner's eldest daughter, Laura Turner Seydel, is similarly "passionate" about environmental causes, Bahouth says. Indeed, it was largely the 36-year-old Seydel's doing that her father's 20th anniversary celebration of his America's Cup victory in Newport, R.I., this past Labor Day weekend also became a chance for some environmental do-gooding. A trustee of Rhode Island-based Save the Bay, Seydel came up with an idea for a six-boat race featuring Turner and several other former Cup winners and competitors. The event raised nearly $ 100,000 and untold amounts of publicity for the group, which fights pollution in the waters around the famed sailing port. It seems the environment is never far from Turner's mind these days. In his first speech after making the U.N. pledge, Turner bombarded delegates to a meeting of the Land Trust Alliance in Savannah with his thoughts on everything from overpopulation to global warming, telling the group that environmental protection was about nothing less than "the survival of humanity." If all these seemingly disparate environmental issues connect in Turner's head, well, what else would you expect from the man who saw in CNN a way to connect a whole globe full of disparate peoples in one giant broadcast network? "In business, he's always been able to see the whole big picture," Teddy Turner confirmed. "What he saw in environmentalism is that the big picture is pretty bleak. We're all going to kill ourselves eventually.That's why the 'Save the Humans' slogan of the Turner Foundation is absolutely perfect, because if we save ourselves, we save everything else and vice versa. It all works together." Saving world a bit at a time You don't even have to be huge to be "saved" by Turner's largesse. While Turner's billion-dollar pledge clearly rocked the corridors of the United Nations, a lot less money may have as big an impact in tiny Gallatin Gateway, Mont. There, in the de facto seat of his far-flung land empire (a two-story house in the town of some 260 people contains the offices of Turner Ranches, and his signature Flying D Ranch is down the road a piece), news of a new Turner Foundation program to help rural youth in towns like theirs has set off a flurry of brainstorming sessions. One idea: a gravel path along a highway in this state with no daytime speed limits so schoolchildren will have a safe place to walk. To the Turner Foundation it makes perfect sense to worry about rural youth ---and not just because there's a certain built-in PR value to being seen as caring neighbors rather than rich outsiders come to buy the best land. "We thought, if you're talking about environmental sustainability, let's look at youth," explained executive director Bahouth. "Isn't environmental sustainability also about whether youth stay around and continue to make a community a vibrant, healthy place to live?" Last year, the Turner Foundation made 380 grants to groups as big and savvy as the Washington, D.C.-based Physicians for Social Responsibility and as small and specialized as San Francisco's Russian Environmental Law Project. Its funds touched groups as far away as the Antarctica Project and as nearby as Trees Atlanta and the Corporation for Olympic Development in Atlanta. Turner's even willing to create a new philanthropic entity when he sees a need. He recently started the Turner Endangered Species Fund, with a 1998 budget of some $ 300,000, to try and restore threatened species on his vast land holdings. And the human being he put in charge? His youngest son, Beau, 30. (Turner's other son, Rhett, 32, is studying photography at the Rhode Island School of Design and, Bahouth says, is invaluable for his "eye for the visual aspects of things" the family is involved in.) He's the boss on how to give He may be willing to delegate responsibility, but it appears Turner isn't easily dissuaded when deciding how to make a gift. While Turner's philanthropic funds increasingly are being channeled through his foundation, according to financial adviser Taylor Glover, he continues to make personal gifts. Glover helps advise him on "the best, most tax-efficient" way to make donations, but even he only has so much sway. Three years ago, Turner pledged a total of $ 75 million to three schools ---Brown University, The Citadel and the McCallie School in Chattanooga ---which he and his three sons had attended. Glover advised him to give a portion of the money as outright gifts and put the remainder in charitable trusts. "But I also said, 'Why don't you maintain the flexibility to designate any combination (of trust amounts to the various schools)?' " recalled Glover, who is also one of Turner's longtime close friends. " 'That way, if something changes at one of the institutions that you don't like, you could make changes.' " Turner's reaction was quick and to the point. "He said, 'Absolutely not! That's like Indian giving!' " Glover related. Frustration with roadblocks From CNN to the Goodwill Games and the U.N. donation, Turner's vision is clearly global. And yet it is a decidedly homegown effort ---the Turner Foundation ---that most points to his desire to create an enduring philanthropic legacy. It may simply have been, as Glover now suggests, that it was becoming "impossible" for Turner to review all the philanthropic opportunities before him. But his youngest child thinks it went deeper than all that. "With him having concerns about so many issues, I think it just all added up six years ago when he said, 'Hey, I want to officially do something and make a statement that this is what I'm committed to for the long term,' " said Jennie Garlington. Teddy Turner thinks his father was frustrated by his experiences with the Better World Society, a nonprofit foundation he set up in 1985 to help fund documentaries on environmental topics "underreported" in the media ---then folded after several years and millions of dollars when it didn't have the desired impact. Nor was that the only thing that might have been nagging at Turner, according to his oldest son. "I can take credit for having inspired Dad a little bit," Teddy Turner said wryly, turning to the topic of trust funds. "I think he saw that we didn't know how to spend it, to work with the newfound wealth in our trust funds. I think it actually was a wakeup call to him, you know, 'If I pass away and give my kids money, what will they do with it? It probably will just be spent.' " Getting younger generation involved Whatever his motivation, Turner clearly wanted his offspring involved in the foundation bearing their name. Having stated his intent to leave the bulk of his estate to the foundation and other charitable entities, Turner was just as determined that its trustees be limited to himself, Fonda and his five grown children. It was another instance of Turner ignoring his old friend Glover's seemingly sound advice ---though Glover now cheerfully concedes he was wrong. "At the time I felt he would need some outside trustees, but in hindsight I believe he was totally correct in doing it the way he chose," Glover said. "Because he has passed on the legacy of teaching these children what his perceptions are as it relates to giving. It's working great, and I'm happy that it is." Not that it's not hard work. Bahouth expresses nothing but admiration for the Turner siblings, who read reams of research material prepared by the foundation staff in order to make decisions on grant applications that last year numbered about 3,500. And it's not just around the time of the four yearly board meetings (up from two a few years ago) held at Turner's various properties that they're doing what amounts to philanthropic research. On a recent weekday afternoon, Teddy and Jennie had just returned from a visit to a local school that receives Turner Foundation money. A few days later, Beau Turner would call from Montana, where he also oversees wildlife management on all the Turner properties. "It's allowed me to do some great things," said Beau, 30, before hanging up to take a long-distance call from ---who else? ---his father. "I think Dad thought it was very, very important to start giving money away while he was still around, so he could see what our interest was in all this. And so he could see his children enjoying the giving." Enjoying doesn't begin to describe the experience, Garlington said. "What's so wonderful is, he is our mentor in this whole thing. He will have given us 30 to 40 years of him being a mentor," Garlington said. ''This is his way of sort of letting us make our name and make our mark on the environment, too. It's probably one of the greatest opportunities that any son or daughter can ever hope to have." Where the money goes Sure, everyone's heard of the $ 1 billion U.N. pledge. But here are some lesser-known recipients of Turner's personal, foundation or corporate philanthropy: -Community Youth Development Initiative ---Some $ 800,000 in grants is earmarked for 17 rural communities located near Turner properties in Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico and South Carolina. -The SuperChallenge ---The Goodwill Games will donate $ 1 for every hour volunteered nationally to Atlanta-based Boys & Girls Clubs of America (up to $ 1 million); Turner personally donated the first $ 1. -Love Canal/Center for Health, Environment and Justice ---Works with 8,000 grass-roots groups to clean up toxic waste sites; received about $ 60,000 from the foundation this year. -Civil War Battlefields Preservation ---Turner Network Television (TNT) donated $ 100,000 while making 1993's "Gettysburg." -Great Bear Foundation ---Montana group works to preserve British Columbia wilderness for native bear population; received some $ 27,000 from foundation. "You're really taking care of a lot of other species when you're taking care of bears," said Great Bear's Charles Jonkel. "People get mad at Ted Turner for a lot of things, but he puts his money where his mouth is." -GCAPP Benefit Auction ---Turner donated two five-day vacations at his Flying D Ranch in Montana for the June '96 fund-raiser for wife Jane Fonda's Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention. Each sold for $ 50,000. - Campaign for Courageous ---Turner donated $ 10,000 to the campaign to restore the two-time America's Cup-winning yacht he skippered to victory in 1977.

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