Robert Frank, who new book Richistan I reviewed a couple of weeks back, had a very interesting item on his blog yesterday. In "More Giving, Fewer Plaques Please", Frank offers the opinion that there are too many rich people too worried about getting recognition for their charitable contributions, to the point that every building, every part of a building and every park bench now has some sort of marker telling us whose money made its existence possible. In sort of the icing on the cake for his argument, he mentions a retired venture capitalist who will get his name affixed to the restrooms of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City, thanks to the $100,000 he contributed to ensure museum-goers' comfort.

Frank ends his piece with:

So my message to the new crop of philanthropists is this: If you truly want to make the world a better place, please don't clutter it up with more plaques and name tags.

At first I tended to agree with Frank---at some point the large contributor names attached to every institution starts to feel like the company names attached to every professional sports venue in the country.

Except they're not.

The fact is that many hospital buildings, museums, university buildings and other institutions that enrich our lives wouldn't exist without some rich to do the enriching. You can say that these people do it to feed their egos or pump up their personal PR quotient, but so what? Fact is, they do it, and oftentimes they're the only ones that can, unless you'd enjoy another tax increase or would simply rather the buildings not be built or the institutions barely survive.

If they want their names attached so people can see what they've done, let 'em have it. Who does it really hurt? Whether it's a personal philanthropist or a corporation, if the money being given is for something good, why quibble about the naming rights?

(An exception I should mention, and this is where things can get gray: Not everyone who becomes rich does so through the most appropriate of means, and not every corporation willing to hand out $10 million dollars to have their name attahed to the children's wing of a hospital is automatically saintly. Bad enough we had Enron Field; worse would've been the Enron Children's Home.)

I'm no Richie, but I've had times in the past where I've made sizable (to me) contributions to things. My wife and I once gave a good chunk of change to the capital campaign for our local library's rebuilding. We did so out of our desire to see the building improved, but there was an incident that showed me how these richies handing out millions might want a little recognition.

After giving our donation early in the capital campaign, we never heard from anyone from the library. That's fine, no big deal. But then, as part of the fundraising, the library was selling those brick pavers that cost $50 or $100 or whatever, which allow you to get your family's name on a brick outside the entranceway. It's a good fundraising tool, but when the library fundraiser came to my wife and me and asked us if we would buy a paver, with the promise that we could have our names permanently shown in front of the building, my wife and I stared at each other, frowning in disbelief. We'd already given enough for 20 or 30 pavers. Our thought was, do you only get the pavers if you give during the "correct" time in the fundraising?

We hesitated and told the fundraiser, "Uh, we'll think about it." She must've sensed something was amiss, because she ended up calling us two days later and saying she was sorry that she forgot to mention we'd already have a paver but they'd appreciate it if we'd give a little more. A little CYA there, eh?

Thinking about that much smaller scale incident made me understand how the filthy rich might want to see their names in lights, or at least in huge block letters on the side of a building. They may not be giving the money JUST to see their names, but when you make a big gesture, the majority of us want acknowledgment. You can debate whether the acknowledgment needs to be as big as the contribution, but, again, you have to ask whether the money is worth the big blocky name on the building. In many cases, maybe even in most cases, I think it is.