The audience demographics of Business Jet Traveler—the AIN sister publication that I edit—are eye-popping. According to one survey, 57 percent of our subscribers are CEOs or in other C-level positions. Their annual income averages $1.3 million and their mean net worth is $18.1 million.
That kind of wealth is obviously as rare as it is impressive. And while it’s just as obvious that life at the other end of the spectrum is not rare at all, the statistics about the world’s most impoverished people remain equally eye-popping: 1 billion children, nearly half of all those on the planet, live in poverty—and about 22,000 die every day because of it. According to a 2008 World Bank report, 1.3 billion people in developing countries survive on $1.25 a day or less, which works out to a maximum of $456 a year.
Many of the rest of the people on Earth aren’t faring much better. According to the same report, fully half the world’s inhabitants live on less than $2.50 a day and 80 percent get by on less than $10 a day. Obviously, the vast majority of these people have no net worth to speak of. Many of them have probably never even heard the term.
Yet another set of statistics suggests that affluent Americans may not be doing enough to help these people. As of 2011, those whose earnings placed them in the top 20 percent contributed on average 1.3 percent of their incomes to charity. Meanwhile, those with earnings in the bottom 20 percent gave 3.2 percent. As The Atlantic pointed out in a 2013 article, “the relative generosity of lower-income Americans is accentuated by the fact that, unlike middle-class and wealthy donors, most of them cannot take advantage of the charitable tax deduction, because they do not itemize deductions on their income-tax returns.”
If you’d like to contribute more to charities, you may be wondering where your money would do the most good. For help finding organizations that deliver assistance effectively, see “How to Size Up a Charity,” which will appear in Business Jet Traveler’s December 2014/January 2015 edition. If you’re pondering a large donation, you might also want to read “Smart Ways to Give to Charity,” which ran in our June/July 2014 issue.
Want more guidance? Our editorial director, Jennifer Leach English, suggests a worthy charity in "Giving Back," a feature in the On the Fly section of every issue of BJT. Many of these organizations aid the poor while others fund medical research, disaster relief and other worthy causes. All of them have been top-rated by Charity Navigator, an organization that evaluates the finances, accountability and transparency of philanthropic institutions. Your contribution to any of these groups could make an important difference.
Jeff Burger joined Business Jet Traveler in March 2004, a few months after the publication’s launch. Besides editing the magazine, he has written many articles for it and conducted its interviews with such luminaries as Sir Richard Branson, James Carville, Suze Orman, Donald Trump, F. Lee Bailey, and Steve Van Zandt. Burger helped to oversee the introduction of BJT’s annual Readers' Choice surveys and Buyers’ Guide.
During his years with the magazine, it has won well over a hundred editorial awards. In 2011, Burger received the Gold Wing Award for Reporting Excellence from the National Business Aviation Association and the Aviation Journalism Award from the National Air Transportation Association. He has also won writing and editing awards from the American Society of Business Publication Editors. BJT, meanwhile, was named Best International Publication in 2017 in the Aerospace Media Awards. It was also a Magazine of the Year finalist in 2011, 2013, and 2016 and an Overall Excellence winner in 2018 in competitions sponsored by the American Society of Business Publication Editors.
Before coming to BJT, Burger spent 14 years at Medical Economics, the nation’s leading business magazine for doctors, where he served on the editorial board; directed staff recruiting; oversaw a $2 million annual budget; and was financial editor, news editor, and director of special projects. He has been editor of several publications, including Phoenix Magazine in Arizona, and has been a consulting editor at Time Inc. His articles have appeared in more than 75 magazines and newspapers, among them The Los Angeles Times, Barron’s, Reader’s Digest, Gentlemen’s Quarterly , and Family Circle. Chicago Review Press published his books, Springsteen on Springsteen: Interviews, Speeches, and Encounters, Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen: Interviews and Encounter, Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon, and Dylan on Dylan: Interviews and Encounters. His music writing appears on multiple websites, including his own byjeffburger.com.
Burger, a summa cum laude graduate of the State University of New York at Albany, lives in Ridgewood, N.J. He and his wife, Madeleine, have two grown children. His off-hours passions include cooking, travel, technology, movies, and music.
