埃隆·马斯克，这位世界首富，并不太相信慈善事业。8月，他在社交媒体发文称，加密货币大佬布莱恩·阿姆斯特朗说得没错，许多慈善机构对世界而言是“净负面”作用。几周前，他曾参与对历史上最大捐赠者之一、亚马逊创始人杰夫·贝佐斯前妻麦肯齐·斯科特的攻击，指责她“让世界变得更糟”。马斯克对行善之举的厌恶并非新鲜事。
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, does not much believe in philanthropy. In August he said in a social-media post that Brian Armstrong, a crypto boss, was right to dismiss many charities as “net negative” for the world. Weeks earlier he had joined attacks on one of the biggest donors in history, Mackenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, for “making the world a worse place”. Mr Musk’s distaste for do-goodery is not new.
他主导了美国援助机构的近乎拆解，甚至在成为首位万亿富翁之前，就曾被引述形容慈善事业为“狗屁”。在马斯克的算计中，他给人类的馈赠是他的营利性工作：特斯拉生产的电动汽车、SpaceX开展的太空探索，以及其社交媒体网站上的政治辩论，然而，马斯克同时也运营着美国第五大慈善私人基金会。据最新统计，马斯克基金会拥有147亿美元资产，规模略小于福特基金会，却是洛克菲勒基金会的两倍多，后者两者均为慈善界的长青支柱（见图表）。
He led the near-demolition of America’s aid agency, and even before becoming the first trillionaire was quoted describing philanthropy as “bullshit”. In Mr Musk’s reckoning, his gift to humanity is his for-profit work: the electric vehicles he produces at Tesla, the space exploration he is doing at SpaceX and the political debate on his social-media site, And yet Mr Musk also runs America’s fifth-largest charitable private foundation. With $14.7bn in assets at last count, the Musk Foundation is a hair smaller than the Ford Foundation and more than double the size of the Rockefeller Foundation, two longstanding pillars of philanthropy (see chart).
然而，与这些机构不同，马斯克基金会对其工作几乎只字不提。其网站仅有33个单词，列出了其支持的事业，包括可再生能源、太空探索和人工智能安全。而且它仅由三人团队运营：马斯克本人；其家族办公室负责人贾里德·伯查尔；以及另一位家族办公室员工马蒂尔达·西蒙。了解该基金会活动的唯一线索藏在纳税申报表中。
Unlike these organisations, however, the Musk Foundation says almost nothing about its work. Its website consists of 33 words, laying out the causes it supports, including renewable energy, space exploration and artificial-intelligence safety. And it is run by a team of just three: Mr Musk; the head of his family office, Jared Birchall; and Matilda Simon, another family-office employee. The only clues to the foundation’s activities are contained in tax returns.
《经济学人》翻阅了涵盖2020年7月至2024年底期间的申报文件，以探寻答案：这位厌恶慈善的大亨究竟如何施舍？
The Economist scoured the filings covering the period from July 2020 to the end of 2024 to find out: how does the tycoon who detests philanthropy give?
第一个观察是，马斯克像大多数非常富有的人一样，似乎在设计他的慈善活动以最小化他的税收。他最大的捐赠——总计约80亿美元的特斯拉股票——在2021年和2022年捐给了他的基金会，当时他获得了数十亿美元的股票，因此面临巨额税单。俄亥俄州立大学的会计专家布赖恩·米滕多夫表示，创始人通过此类捐赠可以获得“双重好处”：他们可以避免为这些最初成本相对较低的股票缴纳资本利得税，然后可以根据这些股票（远高于成本）的市场价值申请慈善捐赠抵扣。
The first observation is that Mr Musk, like most very rich people, appears to craft his philanthropy to minimise his taxes. His biggest gifts—a total of around $8bn in Tesla stock—went to his foundation in 2021 and 2022, years when he came into many billions of dollars of shares and faced a whopping tax bill as a result. Brian Mittendorf, an accounting expert at Ohio State University, says founders enjoy a “double benefit” from such donations: they avoid paying capital-gains tax on the shares, which originally cost them relatively little, and can then claim a charitable deduction based on the (far higher) market value.
2024年底，马斯克基金会持有的股票账面价值约为570万美元，而其市场价值估计为140亿美元。
At the end of 2024, the book value of the stock held by the Musk Foundation was around $5.7m, whereas their market value was an estimated $14bn.
作为税收减免的回报，慈善家本应将资金用于善举。但马斯克基金会在这方面行动极其缓慢。根据美国法律，仅进行资助的基金会每年必须分配大约其投资资产的5%，否则将面临处罚，但有一年的宽限期来弥补任何不足。许多基金会偶尔会未达标。但马斯克基金会在过去四年（有可查档案的年份）中每年都利用了这一宽限期，根据数据提供方Foundation Mark的数据，截至2024年底，该基金会仍需补缴4亿美元。
In return for tax breaks, philanthropists are supposed to put their money to good causes. But the Musk Foundation has been painfully slow to do so. Under American law, foundations that only make grants must distribute roughly 5% of their investment assets every year or else face penalties, with a one-year grace period to make up any shortfall. Many foundations miss the target now and then. But the Musk Foundation has made use of the grace period in each of the past four years for which filings are available, and at the end of 2024 was on the hook for $400m, according to Foundation Mark, a data provider.
此外，根据Candid（另一家数据提供商）的税务申报和估算，基金会所作的捐赠中，有一大部分被放进了“持有池”。在2020年至2024年间拨出的10亿美元中，近十分之一流向了Fidelity Charitable，该机构运营着捐赠顾问基金（DAFs），这种账户允许捐赠者无限期地持有用于慈善的资金，且无需任何报告要求。虽然慈善私人基金会向DAFs捐款并不违规，但米特恩多夫表示，此类转账违背了“规则的精神”。他指出：“你只是把钱从一个桶移到另一个桶而已。”
What is more, according to tax filings and estimates from Candid, another data provider, of the gifts the foundation has made, a big chunk has been put into a holding pen. Almost one-tenth of the $1bn disbursed between 2020 and 2024 went to Fidelity Charitable, which runs donor-advised funds (DAFs), accounts that let donors hold money destined for charity indefinitely with no reporting requirements. There is no rule against charitable private foundations donating to DAFs. But, says Mr Mittendorf, such transfers are against the “spirit of the rules”. “You’re just moving money from one bucket to another bucket,” he argues.
在马斯克基金会已拨出的资金中，绝大部分流向了与该企业家相关的其他组织。超过58%的资金被输送至The Foundation，该慈善机构由伯查尔领导，且与马斯克基金会共享同一地址。根据其2024年的税务申报，The Foundation的目标是建设专注于STEM（科学、技术、工程和数学）教育的学校。然而，尚不清楚它究竟如何使用其所有资金。
Of the money that has been handed out by the Musk Foundation, the vast majority has gone to other organisations linked to the entrepreneur. Over 58% was funnelled to The Foundation, a charity led by Mr Birchall that shares the same address as the Musk Foundation. According to its 2024 tax filing, The Foundation aims to build schools dedicated to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education. Yet it is unclear what it does with all its money.
马斯克曾资助一所名为Ad Astra（拉丁文意为“通往星辰”）的私立学校，该校位于SpaceX之前在加州的总部附近，学生人数不足五十人（包括马斯克的子女）。但该校在新冠肺炎疫情期间左右被关闭。根据Ad Astra官网的信息，一所位于德克萨斯州的新校目前正在筹建中，SpaceX已将总部迁至该州。
Mr Musk did fund a private school named Ad Astra (Latin for “to the stars”) near SpaceX’s previous headquarters in California, which had a student body of less than fifty (including Mr Musk’s children). But it was wound down around the time of the covid-19 pandemic. According to the Ad Astra website, a new school in Texas, where SpaceX has relocated, is in the works.
其他捐赠则带有自我服务的色彩。其中一项较大的近期捐赠是2021年向一家儿童医院捐赠5500万美元，这帮助另一位亿万富翁杰德·艾萨克曼实现了他的筹款目标——他曾将一次SpaceX任务包装为慈善活动进行融资（他通过抽奖方式发放了一张票）。2021年SpaceX火箭爆炸后，向得克萨斯州南部的一些非营利组织的一系列小额捐赠随之而来，此次爆炸导致当地地区被碎片覆盖。
Other gifts appear self-serving. One of the biggest of late, a $55m donation in 2021 to a children’s hospital, helped Jared Isaacman, another billionaire, meet his fundraising goal when he bankrolled a SpaceX mission as a charitable endeavour (he raffled off a ticket). A smattering of donations to non-profit groups in southern Texas followed the explosion of a SpaceX rocket in 2021, which showered the local area in debris.
在其余的捐赠中，看不出任何明显的慈善战略。抛开“基金会”（The Foundation）和“富达”（Fidelity）不论，马斯克基金会（Musk Foundation）在2024年的平均捐款额不到140万美元。这些资金流向了五花八门的慈善事业，从海狮保护到脊髓医学。美国左翼智库城市研究所（Urban Institute）的本杰明·索斯基斯（Benjamin Soskis）表示，马斯克先生“非常强调自己是一个有远见的人，有着大胆的想法。但即使是对马斯克基金会最同情的解读，你也找不到那种方式。”
Among the remainder of the gifts, there is no discernible philanthropic strategy. Put aside The Foundation and Fidelity, and the average donation made by the Musk Foundation in 2024 was less than $1.4m. The money has gone to a hodge-podge of causes, from sea-lion conservation to spinal medicine. Mr Musk “puts a real emphasis on being a visionary and having bold ideas,” says Benjamin Soskis of the Urban Institute, a left-leaning American think-tank. “But even in the most sympathetic reading of the Musk Foundation, you can’t find that type of approach.”
就其捐赠风格而言，马斯克基金会相当甩手不管。具有讽刺意味的是，受赠者将其比作斯科特女士的努力。她只维持极少数的员工，在发放资金时不规定用途，也不要求定期报告，从而颠覆了传统的慈善事业。同样，马斯克基金会不支付薪水，其三人领导团队平均每周合计只花2.1个小时在基金会的工作上。曾获得该基金会资助的教育非营利组织CodeAI的老板卡里姆·梅格吉（Karim Meghji）将这一过程描述为“非常简单”。他解释说：“基本上就是一个电话、一张支票，然后在年底我们发送一份报告。”
As far as its style of giving goes, the Musk Foundation is fairly hands off. Ironically, grantees liken it to Ms Scott’s efforts. She has upturned traditional philanthropy by maintaining only a small staff and handing out money without prescribing what it is spent on or asking for regular reports. Likewise, the Musk Foundation pays no salaries, and its three-person leadership team devotes on average a combined 2.1 hours per week to its work. Karim Meghji, boss of CodeAI, an education non-profit that has received funding from the foundation, describes the process as “very simple”. “It’s very much the phone call, the cheque, and then we send a report at the end of the year,” he explains.
与慈善事业相比，马斯克先生似乎对向政治事业捐款表现出更大的热情。最近几个月，在美国中期选举到来之际，他已向共和党捐赠了至少2.75亿美元。这种情况可能会改变。马斯克先生投入其基金会的资金是无法提取的，他过去曾多次暗示，他计划在未来进行巨额捐赠。然而就目前而言，这位世界首富似乎是最不慷慨的富豪之一。
Mr Musk appears more enthusiastic about giving his money away to political causes than to charitable ones. In recent months he has donated at least $275m to the Republican Party ahead of America’s midterm elections. That may change. The money Mr Musk has put into his foundation cannot be withdrawn, and he has hinted repeatedly in the past that he plans to make big gifts in the future. For now, though, the world’s richest plutocrat looks to be one of its least generous. ■