The great-grandson of a bologna maker named Oscar Mayer, Chuck grew up as one of many heirs to a not inconsiderable fortune. When the Madison-born, Michigan-reared son of privilege reached the age of 21, he inherited a cool $275,000.

This was almost 20 years ago, back before the days of dot-com billionaires. In those days, $275,000 went a long way. And Chuck stretched it further as the go-go economy of the 1980s heated up. Lending credence to the old bromide that "the best way to get rich is to be born rich,'' Chuck watched his fortune grow to roughly $500,000 by the time he was in his mid-20s.

It wasn't hard. Chuck went to college in Michigan, played ultimate frisbee, read history and economics and banked the interest payments on his ever-expanding largesse. As the saying goes: "The rich get richer.''

That's not a particularly bothersome notion to some wealthy folks, who convince themselves that they are earning interest because they're smarter or because they play a better game of frisbee than the rest of us. But it bugged Chuck.

So he decided to really stretch his good fortune. Indeed, Chuck did something with his money that some of his fellow heirs would say was downright crazy.

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In the midst of the greed-is-good Reagan era, Chuck gave his fortune away.

Every penny.

It was, he explained, an investment in a better world. Chuck handed 40 percent of his money to the Funding Exchange, which directs major donations to groups working for economic and social justice across the United States. Chuck turned the remainder of the money over to organizations that fund progressive activism in New England and the Southern United States.

Chuck said it was "something I felt that I had to do.''

Why?

Well, for one thing, he didn't believe he was rich because he was necessarily smarter, or better bred or even more agile with the frisbee than his fellow Americans.

To be sure, Chuck says, children of wealthy parents are "fed a whole lot of myths'' about how they are deserving heirs. Chuck can tick the myths off: "People have worked hard.'' "They've taken risks and succeeded.'' "They're smarter.''

But growing up in the upscale Detroit suburb of Bloomington Hills, he found himself asking a lot of questions. It all started after the Detroit riots of 1967, in which impoverished African-Americans shook the very foundations of that great industrial city with a cry for change that echoed 'round the world. Young Chuck was smart enough to see that economic disparity was at the root of most objections to the status quo. While his parents and their wealthy friends tended to be white, he observed, "I noticed that poor people tended to be black, like our housekeeper ... who came from downtown Detroit to work at our house.''

Youthful idealism can be very inspiring. But more than 30 years after Detroit exploded in that long hot summer, Chuck is still battling the economic injustice he first recognized as a youth.

After earning a master's degree in business and community economic development from New Hampshire College, he moved to Boston and co-founded United for a Fair Economy, the single most effective group in the country when it comes to publicizing issues of economic injustice, income disparity, the racial underpinnings of the gap between rich and poor, and, above all, the yawning chasm between the salaries of corporate CEOs and those of working Americans.

One of Chuck's big projects has been the push for what he refers to as "responsible wealth.'' No, he's not telling everyone else who ever inherited or earned a fortune to give it all away. But he is encouraging wealthy Americans to give more of their money to social-change groups, which are less about the Band-Aid of charity than the cure of economic development and community transformation. He has even gotten some of America's wealthiest citizens to support capital gains taxes and other progressive formulas that ensure that the rich pay their fair share.

This year Chuck is traveling the United States to promote a new book on giving money to promote social change, "Robin Hood Was Right'' (W.W. Norton and Co.). Co-written with two of his longtime allies in the struggle for economic justice -- Pam Rogers, a UW-Madison School of Social Work graduate who for many years was special projects coordinator with the Haymarket People's Fund and now works with United for a Fair Economy, and Joan Garner, executive director of the Atlanta-based Southern Partners Fund -- the book is a call for a mixture of progressive philanthropy, government action and personal commitment on behalf of real change.

The authors pay homage to Robin Hood -- who stole from the rich and gave to the poor -- because, as Rogers says, "Robin Hood was right because he rocked the status quo.'' And there can be no question that the authors want to see all Americans direct their giving in the most powerful of directions.

"It is time to re-evaluate what our money can and cannot do,'' the authors argue, adding, "We believe that giving can be one of the most joyous and rewarding experiences. Done consciously, and with one eye always on the goal of attaining social and economic justice, it can be one of the most satisfying of ways to spend money.''

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This weekend, Collins and Rogers will be all over Wisconsin, pushing the idea that Robin Hood really was right, and that all of us can join in the process of transforming society, not by giving away our fortunes -- such as they are or aren't -- but by giving to groups like the Wisconsin Community Fund that in turn guide money into groups working for democracy, justice, and economic and social equality.

Typically, Chuck won't be talking much about himself. He and Pam will be talking instead about the generosity of people such as Madisonians Art and Sue Lloyd, about the good work of the Wisconsin Community Fund and similar groups, and about the very real possibility that America can be transformed by a new way of looking at charity and contributing to change.

Listen up. Chuck Collins is a man with something to teach us all -- about ourselves and about our ability, no matter what our economic circumstances, to play a part in transforming the world around us.

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