A New Way Of Giving

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For every Bill Gates there are literally a million Morris Popes. The 81-year-old retired train engineer has given at least $500 to the Atlanta Food Bank every year since 1982. One year he gave $1,200. And this on a retirement income of about $1,700 a month. He is almost too shy to mention the $3,000 he annually tithes to his First Corinth Missionary Baptist Church. "I look at how God has blessed me during my working years and raising my family, and I can't tell you how many times I've come to these homeless shelters and heard people say, 'My children haven't had a bite to eat today,'" says Pope. "Everyone should feel the pleasure of giving to others. If they knew that, they would give too."

For most entrepreneurs, however, there is an enlightened self-interest at work in their philanthropy. A healthy society creates a healthy market for everything from software to cell phones. Without high levels of education and public health, there would be no one to buy--or build--information-age appliances. "If you want to keep making a profit," says Powell, "then you've got to keep growing the society, so that you have people out there who are workers and consumers." It is a version of the message sold hard in self-help groups, therapy sessions and 12-step meetings: You gotta give it away to keep it.

--With reporting by Ann Blackman/Washington, Greg Fulton/Atlanta, David S. Jackson/Palo Alto and Lisa McLaughlin/New York