# Why did early A.A. turn down Rockefeller money?

**In short:**
- The popular telling has it backwards in one respect. In 1937–38 the founders asked John D. Rockefeller, Jr. for large sums, for hospitals, paid workers and a book. It was Rockefeller who turned the request down, saying, in Bill W.'s account, "I think money will spoil this."
- A.A. did take some Rockefeller help: $5,000 in 1938 to tide Bill and Dr. Bob over, then $1,000 and small gifts from his guests after a 1940 dinner, and a loan to buy back the Big Book's shares, which was repaid.
- What A.A. turned down came later. In the mid-1940s it wrote Rockefeller and the dinner guests that it needed no more money, and its trustees refused a $10,000 bequest (Bill's account doesn't date that refusal). By then the founders had come to agree with him: large outside money would bring a paid professional class, property and quarrels, and divert them from carrying the message.
- Bill credited Rockefeller, along with St. Francis's idea of corporate poverty, for A.A.'s tradition on money.

## The earliest texts

The 1939 Big Book doesn't mention Rockefeller. The Traditions' Long Form, first published in 1946 and printed in today's book, states the principle without names: the groups should be supported by their own members' contributions, and "acceptance of large gifts from any source, or of contributions carrying any obligation whatever, is unwise" (pp. 564–565). See *Tradition Seven: does A.A. take outside money?*

Bill's 1946 Grapevine essay on money, in P-17, looks back without naming anyone: "There was a time some years ago when we desperately needed a little outside aid. This we received." (P-17, 1946). Those gifts, he says, made possible the Alcoholic Foundation, the book and the office, but times had changed (P-17, 1946).

The 1955 Foreword to the Second Edition mentions only the dinner: "In the spring of 1940, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. gave a dinner for many of his friends to which he invited A.A. members to tell their stories." (p. xviii). The publicity brought inquiries and book sales (p. xviii).

## 1937–38: Rockefeller says no (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957)

After the November 1937 count of about forty sober members, Bill went looking for big money (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Through his brother-in-law he met Willard Richardson, who managed Rockefeller's charities, and in December 1937 Bill, Dr. Bob, Dr. Silkworth and others told their stories in Rockefeller's board room (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). The chairman, Albert Scott, asked: "Won't money spoil this thing?" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Frank Amos investigated Akron and recommended $50,000 to start (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

Rockefeller flatly declined. Bill says his reasons were the same as those of the Akron minority who had opposed paid missionaries and hospitals (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). He placed $5,000 in the treasury of Riverside Church for Bill and Dr. Bob, said the fellowship should soon support itself, and added, "But please don't ever ask me for any more." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). In another chapter Bill gives Rockefeller's words as: "I think money will spoil this." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). "St. Francis had given us the idea, but John D. wisely forced us to live up to it." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

## 1940: the dinner

On February 8, 1940, Rockefeller gave a dinner for A.A.; he fell ill, and his son Nelson presided (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Bill and Dr. Bob expected wealth to follow. Instead Nelson said, for his father, that "Alcoholics Anonymous should be self-supporting so far as money is concerned. It needs only our good will." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Rockefeller bought 400 books at a dollar each to send the guests, gave $1,000, and allowed the trustees to ask the guests for gifts, which brought about $2,000 more (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). That money paid Bill and Dr. Bob $30 a week (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Bill concludes: "They had put A.A. on the map." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

Rockefeller, two of his sons and some dinner guests also lent the Foundation $8,000 to buy back the Big Book's shares from its subscribers, to be repaid from book profits (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). See *How was the Big Book paid for and published (Works Publishing)?*

## When A.A. said "no more"

Bill writes that once book royalties could support him and Dr. Bob and the groups were paying for the office, they wrote Rockefeller and the guests that no more funds were needed, and "At that point the A.A. Tradition of 'no outside contributions' went into full force and effect." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Then the trustees faced a $10,000 bequest at a time when they badly needed it; they declined it, and "They declared for the principle that A.A. must always stay poor." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

P-44 (Bill, describing events through 1955) tells it the same way: Rockefeller declined a large sum "for fear of professionalizing A.A." (P-44), and in doing so "saved us from the perils of property management and professionalism" (P-44).

## Where the sources differ
- **Who said money would spoil it.** Bill's 1957 book has Albert Scott ask the question at the 1937 meeting (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957), and Rockefeller say it afterward (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). *Pass It On* (1984) notes that Richardson had already written in November 1937 that professionalizing the work would be undesirable, so "it is unclear whose idea this had originally been" (Pass It On, 1984).
- **The mortgage.** P-44 says "About half of the $5,000" paid Dr. Bob's mortgage (P-44); *Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers* (1980) says "$3,000 went to pay off Bob's mortgage" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).
- **The dinner.** Bill's 1957 book and *Pass It On* say the Union Club, February 8, 1940 (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957; Pass It On, 1984). P-44 says it "came off early in February at New York's Union League Club" (P-44). The 1955 foreword says "the spring of 1940" (p. xviii).
- **When the help stopped.** In one chapter Bill says they wrote "Four years later" than 1940 (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957); in another, "In 1945 we wrote Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and the 1940 dinner guests that we would no longer need their financial help." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

## Read it yourself
- Appendix I, "The A.A. Tradition," with the Long Form (pp. 561–566), free from A.A.: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_appendicei.pdf
- Foreword to the Second Edition (pp. xv–xxi): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_forewordsecondedition.pdf
- *A.A. Comes of Age*, *Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers* and *Pass It On* are sold by A.A. World Services: https://onlineliterature.aa.org
- Related: *Tradition Seven: does A.A. take outside money?* · *What was the Alcoholic Foundation?* · *How was the Big Book paid for and published (Works Publishing)?* · *Tradition Eight: can anyone be paid for Twelfth Step work?*

## Sources
| Source | Pages | Date |
|---|---|---|
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, Appendix I, Long Form Seven | 564–565 | text 1946; placed in the book 1955 |
| P-17, "Money" (Bill W., Grapevine) | — | 1946; pamphlet © 2019, article © AA Grapevine |
| Foreword to the Second Edition | xviii | 1955 |
| P-44, *A.A.'s Legacy of Service* (Bill W.) | — | describes events through 1955; pamphlet © 2018 |
| *A.A. Comes of Age* | — | 1957 |
| *Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers* | — | 1980 |
| *Pass It On* | — | 1984 |

Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001).
*Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book, P-44,* A.A. Comes of Age, *Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers *and* Pass It On *are © A.A. World Services, Inc.; P-17's articles are © AA Grapevine, Inc.*