What Ted Turner taught us about tenacity

The passing of Ted Turner marks more than the end of an era of a media titan. It signals the departure of one of the few philanthropists who truly understood the “superpower” of private wealth.

Turner will be remembered as the founder of the pioneering cable news network CNN, bringing his audacious vision for a global 24-hour news cycle to life and revolutionizing television news. But more than that, he should be remembered as a champion for our common humanity, as well as our shared responsibility to look after the planet.

Many may not know that in 1997, Turner pledged one billion dollars to the United Nations Foundation – one of the largest private donations by any individual at the time, around a third of his wealth, and one he later called the “best investment” of his life.

At a time when some questioned the value of international engagement, Turner went against the grain, funding a Foundation that went on to demonstrate its convening power, with 15 peacekeeping operations across four continents.

While the amount at the time was eye-watering, I believe his most radical contribution wasn’t the sum itself – it was his willingness to be unreasonable in his approach to giving. He never stopped pushing for the world to do better – from global health to peace, human rights, and the protection of our climate.

Turner famously compared the start of the UN Foundation to the adventures of Christopher Columbus – “We started without knowing where we were going; we just knew we were going on a voyage.” Much like his disruption of the television industry, Turned defied the safe default of restricted, small-scale grants and liked to say that just because something is hard is not a reason to sit on our hands and do nothing.

Beyond his pledge to the UN, Turner’s philanthropic work extended to addressing global issues that others deemed too daunting or politically sensitive. Not only did he focus on saving ‘un-glamorous’ endangered species, but he also took on the existential threats – such as the danger of nuclear weapons via his Nuclear Threat Initiative. He understood a fundamental truth that has guided my own work: philanthropists have a unique freedom to do what businesses and government cannot.

As philanthropists, we have no voters to appease, and no shareholders to keep happy that could stand in the way of a long-term vision – so long as you have the determination to stay the course. This freedom has been a guiding light for over twenty years, in my work tackling the largest disability in the world: poor vision.

But there is a growing, dangerous expectation that philanthropy should simply step in as a ‘Plan B’ to fill the gaps left by governments pulling back on foreign aid spending. This is a mistake. Philanthropy is at its best when it acts as society’s R&D department, not its funding backstop.

Traditional models of giving are no longer sufficient for the interconnected crises of inequality and climate change. As Ted showed with his philanthropic tenacity, we must rethink philanthropy as a source of propulsion rather than stability; a force that accelerates radical innovation and de-risks solutions until they are ‘investable’ for later-stage institutional funding. We should not be signing checks to maintain the status quo; we should be using our ‘superpower’ to make the old ways of thinking obsolete.

As we face an uncertain future, let us not be deterred by the hard tasks. It is time for philanthropists to stop playing it safe and, inspired by Ted Turner’s legacy, start taking the bold bets that humanity deserves.