If you want to read up on a rich person who really went all out to help poor people, check out Molly Brown, the Titanic survivor. She grew up poor and married poor but her husband made a killing in the gold fields in CO. She became a real philanthropist. However, she didn't just hand out money. She rolled up her sleeves and got dirty.
She was disrespected because she was new money in a time when only old money was respectable but that didn't matter to her when there were people in need.
