Not since Nelson Aldrich Jr. penned Old Money: The Mythology of Wealth in America some 20 years ago has an heir to an American fortune examined so closely the relationship between money and meaning as Sylvia Brown has in her recent book, Grappling with Legacy.

Aldrich is a member of the Rockefeller clan. Brown is an 11th-generation heir of the famous Rhode Island family for which Brown University is named.

Yet where Aldrich explained upper-class culture and values, Brown, whose book was released last year, looks at the American philanthropic impulse while she traces her own family’s roots and wealth accumulation. And she asks an important question: whether self-interest, guilt or altruism guide charitable giving.

The answer, of course, is all three.

Most people want to know the rudimentary basis for their being. Who are we? Where do we come from? These are age-old questions. Perhaps that is why Ancestry.com and genetic testing company 23andMe are so popular. The curiosity is even the genesis of some Greek myths.

Brown’s book tells two stories, one of awe and one of shock, that prompted her 12-year journey investigating her own lineage, going back to 1638—when her ancestor Chad Browne boarded the ship Martin for Boston from England—and then following it to present day.

The Story Of Awe

One of her stories is about an auction she attended at Christie’s in New York in 1989. Her father’s antique desk was sold that day for $12.1 million to Robert Bass, the Texas oil tycoon. At the time, it was the most expensive piece of furniture ever sold in the world. Remarkably, the proceeds all went to Brown University. “I did my homework at that desk,” writes Brown.

She recalls how her father had donated the desk to the John Nicholas Brown Center for the Study of American Civilization, which was to put the desk up for auction and use the funds. It was a grand gesture. The enormous sum was enough to renovate the center and then some. Sylvia’s father, Nicholas Brown, could have even kept some of the proceeds for himself when he realized the desk was attracting high bidders. “No,” Sylvia quotes him as responding. “I have given my word. If the desk is attracting this kind of interest, so much the better for the center.”

The Story Of Shock

On March 17, 2004, Brown attended a slavery and justice symposium at the university. The issue of how slavery was intertwined with the history of the United States and many of its great institutions was raised. “The Brown family was placed squarely at the center of the debate,” Brown writes. “My 18th century ancestors were indeed successful merchants in an Atlantic economy underpinned by the slave trade.” She listened in shock, she said, as one panelist denounced her ancestors.

This was, of course, difficult history with which to wrestle, its complexity coaxing inquiry. She said in the book that since that 2004 encounter, during which she sat “ignorant and unable to respond,” she has tried to understand her family’s legacy and how it is tied up with philanthropy.

In a telephone interview from London—where she resides part time—Brown said that her tale wasn’t born out of lingering guilt, nor a grappling with family history. Rather, the tick she is scratching away at is the question of what’s behind self-interested benevolence.

“Often when I give presentations on the history of philanthropy, I start with John Winthrop and the famous sermon on charity, which he wrote while on board the Arabella on his way to Massachusetts,” she said.

Winthrop discussed charity and the obligations of the rich toward the poor. He also compared economic equality with spiritual equality, examining the good of the individual as well as the good of the community. “Winthrop justified disparities in wealth and condition as divinely ordained so that men would have more need of each other,” Brown concluded in her book.

However, Brown’s historical observations move on from Winthrop’s point: “Then I trace how America’s attitudes on giving have evolved since the early 17th century all the way to the present, and how we have gone through a number of different eras and how our thinking has shifted radically from the original Colonial era thinking. Nevertheless, despite all these changes and transitions, charity as it was called in the 17th century, through to philanthropy, through to more impact investing today, has always been a mark of the American character. There has always been a desire to do something for society. The reasons behind that desire have evolved dramatically in 400 years, but it’s always been a very important component of who we are as Americans,” she observed.

While American society may appear more divisive today than ever before, in the context of giving and philanthropy, our meta virtues and principles are in large part unified.

Most American households (two-thirds) donate to charity annually, according to the Philanthropy Roundtable, a network of charitable donors based in Washington, D.C. In addition, 63 million Americans volunteer their time, according to the most recent Giving USA report.

And charitable giving is at an all-time high, despite (or perhaps in spite of) the current, heated political landscape. Charitable giving reached nearly $400 billion in 2016, says Giving USA.

The moral fabric of benevolence runs deep and wide in American society. People have a feeling of obligation to do what’s right that is tethered to citizenship in the U.S. Not everyone shares it, and not always, but plenty of people live by a “help others” ethos.

Brown captures this particular sense of humanity well, and affords it not only an entire book, but her own professional attention through speeches and activities in which she hopes to promote more types of giving opportunities.

“You have this long continuum where American attitudes towards giving [have] evolved dramatically,” she said. “And what I find really interesting is to look at other parts of the world, particularly the developing world in countries like India or Russia or China, where you have a large number of billionaires who are interested in philanthropy because it’s part of the modern era, and who are having to leapfrog right into the 21st century and who are having to go from a tradition that really resembles the way we, in our country, were thinking 400 years ago. And suddenly, they have to completely change their attitudes and start thinking like philanthropists today. And that’s a very interesting challenge.”

Brown’s mission now is not only to inform through her work, but to educate and build new charitable programs using her research and her particular understanding of wealth, which really comes only from having it. “Since I do not have access to the extraordinary resources my grandfather had available for his philanthropy, I need to leverage my skills by helping others give their money away more strategically and thoughtfully,” she told The Providence Journal newspaper.

Indeed, Brown is all about smart giving. “We know that the mega donors are surrounded by consultants and advisors and are taking their philanthropy quite seriously and looking for special impact,” she told Financial Advisor. “But I see very little donor activity going on at the bottom of the pyramid of philanthropy—like people who give under $100,000 a year. Because there’s no money to be made from this group by consultants and advisors, that’s who I’m focusing on. How can we educate smaller donors? Because I’m convinced that as smaller donors become smarter about their giving, they will fund capacity.”

By that she means “capacity building,” defined by the National Council of Nonprofits as “whatever is needed to bring a nonprofit to the next level of operational, programmatic, financial or organizational maturity, so it may more effectively and efficiently advance its mission into the future.

“Capacity building is not a onetime effort to improve short-term effectiveness, but a continuous improvement strategy toward the creation of a sustainable and effective organization.”

Brown says it means asking, “How are we going to educate [a generation of new wealth holders so that] they can use the latest techniques and know the best practices in what we’ve been developing?”

Nelson Aldrich concluded his book with the word “pietas,” which is loosely translated as “dutifulness.” Its broader meaning spills into an almost religious devotion to fellow human beings. Ancient Romans hailed this as their chief virtue.

Brown gives pietas an action plan.    

Check out grapplingwithlegacy.com.