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F. Scott Fitzgerald said that in America,
there are no second acts. F. Scott Fitzgerald never met Tom Pirelli.
One of WPO Chicago Tom's is a story that needs no embellishment and it never gets more impactful than when Tom tells it himself. "When I sold my healthcare software company to McKesson in 1997, I was 50 years old and I knew that I wanted to do something different for the rest of my life. I never considered retirement as an option because I felt it was the perfect time to do something worthwhile with the experience and assets I had acquired during my career. I had come to realize that the more material possessions I owned, the more they owned me. The pursuit of more things, more money, and a bigger "pile" became meaningless compared to other aspects of my life. The decision to start giving away our assets was not a single, blinding flash of inspiration, but rather a process of learning what truly made us happy. Like many others, we started by writing
checks to existing charities. We found that to be very unsatisfying as we were
never able to get a direct connection to the recipients of our donations, or see
positive results from our participation. That is why my wife, Jane, and I founded our private Arial Foundation, which evolved into our full-time occupation over the last 11 years. We initially worked with physically and mentally handicapped children and adults, homeless people and school kids. Two years ago, we started traveling on humanitarian missions to third World countries. During our travels it became clear that the "haves" of this world are not doing enough to help the "have nots". Thanks to an introduction to Youth With A
Mission by Mike Regan, and a home building
trip led by Steve Perlman, we became interested in building homes for
desperately poor families in Third World countries. In this case, there
was a single
In the summer of 2006, Jane and I started our Arial Home Initiative, whose goal is to build new homes for as many poor families as they can over the next 10 years. How we propose to accomplish that ambitions goal is explained on our website at www.arialhome.org. Jane and I have learned that we have the opportunity and the obligation to make a difference in the lives of people who deserve a better chance in life. The personal reward from pursuing this philanthropic path at this "WPO" stage of our lives is priceless. Sometimes people ask me how I made the
transition from simply writing checks to devoting my life to this process.
For me the transformation came through simple human contact. In my case,
holding a starving I have committed all of my assets to this initiative, with a plan to invest an average of $1 million per year for the next 10 years. Our daughters are very supportive of this commitment. We live in a different world now and my wife and I are very happy with our decision to pursue this path although it has its frustrations, like all philanthropic efforts."
Pictures: Tom and Jane Pirelli; Juan Carlos, sick, sleeping in the only bed in the shack; Tom nailing black shingles in the hot Mexican sun; solar powered Arial Home built Feb 08; Megan, Tom, Danielle and Jane; a healthy Juan Carlos after living 5 months in an Arial Home.
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The Arial Home Initiative is a Project of The Arial Foundation, Chicago, IL The Arial Home Initiative reserves the right to use any photographs taken of volunteers and sites
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's most successful and well respected members, Tom's is the
name that comes up most often when other members are asked to name someone
making a real contribution to the world.
moment of inspiration as I sat on a hot, black roof in Mexico and
wondered whether we could design a home that would be cooler and healthier for
the occupants. Dave Riley provided several suggestions based on his
manufacturing experience which became a key part of our Arial Home design.
child in my arms was all it took to kindle my passion for
working on ways to lift families out of poverty.