Andrew Carnegie was a penniless Scottish immigrant who became a steel-maker, controlling over 25% of American steel production by 1899. By 1902, he was the richest man in the world.

But if that was his only legacy, by his own words, Carnegie would have “died disgraced.” “There is no class so pitiably wretched,” he said, “as that which possesses money and nothing else.”

Over the course of his lifetime, Andrew Carnegie would give away over $350 million dollars. In today’s economy, those gifts would surpass a half billion.

Most of us don’t have $350 million dollars, much less a half a billion, but we can make choices about how to use the money we do have.

We can decide to make an impact.

We ask you to build upon Andrew Carnegie’s legacy. Endow a building. Equip a laboratory. Establish a fellowship to support research, as Carnegie once did for a struggling scientist named Marie Curie.

The inscription on Andrew Carnegie’s tombstone reads, “Here lies a man who knew how to enlist the service of better men than himself.”

Be one of them. Make a choice. Make an impact.