Seymour Schulich and Philanthropy Quotes

I have included some interesting quotes on philanthropy from Seymour Shulich, a prominent Toronto businessperson and philanthropist, who recently gave $20 million to the Technion in Israel, including “I learned from a prominent Torontonian that money is like fertilizer: If you pile it up, it stinks, and if you spread it around, you can grow some beautiful things.”

Seymour Shulich is a prominent Toronto businessperson and philanthropist. 

Here are a couple of interesting quotes from a recent interview with him in Lifestyles Magazine:

“I learned from a prominent Torontonian that money is like fertilizer: If you pile it up, it stinks, and if you spread it around, you can grow some beautiful things.”

On his trip to Brazil in the 1980’s he says:

“I saw a society where there were no safety nets, no unemployment insurance, no welfare, and, believe me, guys with money his their money. They were scared of kidnapping, scared of robbery. I said ‘Boy, your quality of life is terrible.’ It’s far better to pay 50% of your earnings [in taxes] and have welfare. The most dangerous person in the world is the person with nothing to lose. The good thing in Canada is that there are safety nets.”

Seymour Shulich recently donated $20 million to the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, which is sometimes called the “MIT” of Israel.  The Technion is a Schedule VIII University under the Canadian Income Tax Act.  The Income Tax Act requires that foreign universities who will be eligible for this preferential treatment be identified by regulation and hence Schedule VIII to the regulations.  Schedule VIII lists certain prescribed universities outside Canada, the student body of which ordinarily includes students from Canada. Donations to such a prescribed university allows corporations to deduct the donations as charitable donations and allows individuals to be eligible for a tax credit.  I have written an article on Fundraising for Foreign Universities in Canada and it is located at http://www.blumbergs.ca/articles_more.php?id=136_0_2_0