What Do You Do With a Fortune? A Viennese Man Founds a School of Philanthropy

Philip Auinger still remembers where he was when the call came. He was at a fitness center when a U.S. number appeared on his phone. His aunt Brenda had died only hours after being admitted to a hospice, and the news changed his life.

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the question of what you do when you win the lottery suddenly stops being a thought experiment. It completely turns your life upside down.

Auinger had known for about a year that he would inherit from his New York aunt. Brenda Leonard had spent her working life as an elementary-school teacher in the Bronx caring for children, although she had none of her own. That, Auinger says, left him as her nephew with the “great luck” of receiving the inheritance.

The fortune was substantial. Leonard had lived with her parents and cared for them, paying no rent while earning a salary month after month. Over decades, those savings accumulated, and the stock market also performed well. Once the estate had been settled, Auinger found himself facing a question that had previously belonged to lottery fantasies: what should he do with the money?

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At least for me, there was already an inner voice telling me: No, you don’t need this, it can go to other people.

His first instinct was not simply to keep it. “At least for me,” he says, “there was already an inner voice telling me: No, you don’t need this, it can go to other people.” He spent weeks and months reading, listening to podcasts and speaking with specialists to understand how he could use the wealth for good.

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I was already happy before. I really didn’t need it. And that is exactly what troubles you.

Auinger says he had already been happy before the inheritance. He had a good job, a home and enough money for holidays. The sudden arrival of a much larger sum made him question what he actually needed. He says that realization became a burden rather than an easy solution. People assumed he had no worries, while he endured almost sleepless nights and had no one with whom he could speak openly. Instead, he often heard jokes such as, “I’d like to have your problems,” or, “Give it to me, I’ll think of something.”

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I had no one I could openly talk to about it.