Bruce Wayne outside of Batman
Bruce Wayne could do a lot more to fight crime in Gotham City by funding youth programs with his immense wealth instead of dressing up like a bat and dishing out vigilante justice. (just-shower-thoughts)
And thought it would be a cool to research Bruce as a philanthropist and Wayne Enterprises as a business. You know, instead of applying to jobs or cleaning.
Basically all Bruce does all night and day is give to charity and help people.
The main organization he uses is the Wayne Foundation, an umbrella company for the Thomas Wayne Foundation and the Martha Wayne Foundation. TWF is for medicine/science and gives awards/money to research/researches, funds the Memorial Clinic in Park Row (ie Crime Alley) where Leslie Thompkins treats anyone and everyone who comes through her door (villains included), and dozens of other clinics around Gotham. The MWF is for the arts/urban revitalization of Gotham, families, and education. It runs orphanages (and built its own orphanage), creates and funds schools, preps teachers for learning disabilities, gives grants to artists, and sponsors Family Finders, which exists to reunite families. Also soo many soup kitchens. It is also the organization that gives money/scholarships to Gotham Academy. It maintains museums in Gotham, exhibits art and film festivals, as well as being a big sponsor of the theater scene.
The Wayne Foundation also funded Victims Inc, which aimed to help victims of violent crimes. Then there’s Neon Knights, which is started by Tamara Fox/Tim Drake and is funded by the Wayne Foundation. The organization basically is geared toward helping at-risk youth and.. former gang members/teenagers likely to join gangs/something about gangs, it’s been a while since I’ve read Red Robin. He also helps Selina Kyle get her own community center in the East End part of Gotham (ie Catwoman territory) using money she stole from Black Mask/a crime boss of Gotham.
And he rebuilt Gotham essentially through Wayne Enterprises after No Man’s Land, pushing Lex Luthor out of Gotham. After a huge earthquake demolishes the city, the Federal government declares Gotham a “no man’s land.” Gotham has a reputation for being a wasteland so they were mostly thinking “eh better off without it, let’s get all the good people out first tho” but a lot of people were left behind, including mostly minorities, homeless, orphaned, disabled, injured, poor, and convicted felons. They gov’t destroyed all the bridges/tunnels/roads that lead into Gotham and set up military blockades to ensure no one/no medical supplies/no food goes in or out (i always thought that was absurd until I saw the federal fumbles post-Katrina but I digress). During No Man’s Land, he worked together with Poison Ivy to feed the city and shelter various orphans.
Bruce lobbied Congress to end the No Man’s Land mandate and helped it eventually pass the Billion Dollar Build-up Federal Works Project which used the Wayne Enterprises, the Wayne Foundation, the US Army Engineers, LexCorp, and STAR Labs to rebuild. It also employs thousands of people in Gotham. Wayne Enterprises also started buying up buildings and forcing architects/engineers to “Earthquake proof” new builds so that they can survive an 8.5 Earthquake. Even before NML, all Wayne buildings (like Oracle’s watchtower) were Earthquake-proof. IN ADDITION, HE MADE SURE EVERY NEW BUILDING/REPAIRED OLD BUILDING WOULD BE MADE HANDICAP ACCESSIBLE (I bolded that because it gives me so many Oracle/Batman family friendship feels).
Bruce also always pays for property damage, especially to individual victims. Catwoman v2 #82 (2008):
He funds troops and the police force. During and after Dick Grayson’s stint as a Bludhaven Police Officer, the department—which was MASSIVELY underfunded—received huge amounts of top-of-the-line equipment, like high tech bullet proof vests and body armor to soldiers abroad. Also, in Black Mirror, the Foundation builds a high-tech, multimillion dollar forensic lab and donates it to the police force.
(sidenote, look how cute— Dick keeps pictures of Bruce, Alfred, and Babs in his locker!!!!)
He also buys the Daily Planet, ie the pulitzer-prize winning newspaper that Lois Lane and Clark Kent work for. I can’t remember all the details but basically, the Planet is one of the few papers in Metropolis not owned by Lex Luthor and thus the only paper that’s printing critical stories of LexCorp and evil Lex/the guy who owns Metropolis. Lois negotiates ownership over to Perry and then Bruce buys it, working to keep the newspaper out of Luthor’s control/keep free press.
Wayne Foundation also funds superhero groups and superheroes like Young Justice, Teen Titans, Outsiders, the Birds of Prey (although Babs does some other things to secure funding too), and the Justice League. He bought much of the equipment Doctor Mid-Nite uses in the Justice Society of America. Then there’s Batman Incorporated, which runs all over the world, and Wayne Enterprises owns Holt Inc ie Michael Holt/Mister Terrific’s business (although you could argue that Holt Inc helps WE out, since the patents on Holt inventions like T-Spheres are extremely lucrative). He does a lot to take care of the families of superheroes, like setting up a college fund for Irey and Jai West (kids of the Flash, Wally West, and Linda Park-West), pays for Supergirl/Kara’s school/apartment/everything, sets up a trust fund for Stephanie Brown’s child which she gives away for adoption and Stephanie Brown’s whole operation as Batgirl/college tuition, arranges for the adoption of Helena Kyle (Selina’s daughter) as well as a trust fund, pays for Tim Drake’s stepmother’s medical care as well as funeral costs for his dad, gave Clark Kent/Lois Lane the apartment they live in as a wedding gift, and covers the medical expenses of various heroes, like Barbara Gordon/Oracle and Wendy Harris/Proxy. Not to mention he adopts/provides for Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, and Cassandra Cain. Bruce asked Lucius Fox to invest the money Dick Grayson’s parents left him upon their deaths. He turns it into a small fortune and Dick uses it to fund his life/operation as Nightwing initially.
(sidenote: Diana/Wonder Woman sent Wally’s twins ceremonial bracelets and a sword, omg)
He helps people to the point where it’s almost comical how much money he gives out and how readily he employs people, sometimes criticized for being over-simplistic and naive. He invests in random gang bangers, prostitutes, homeless communities, and low level criminals as well as high level criminals who are mostly just victims of their circumstances or show genuine desire to go straight. He carries a whole stack of Wayne Enterprise business cards in his Utility Belt and when he stumbles upon someone he can help, he gives them a card and a job. Most entry-level positions are given to people through Community Outreach programs and they don’t discriminate against ex-cons. Like, Ellie, who goes on to be a receptionist:
and here she is later, in Batman Incorporated, not only employed as a receptionist but being heroic herself:
Not to mention, it certainly PAYS to work for Wayne Enterprises. There’s a corporate scholarship program that covers full tuition for any employee of Wayne Enterprises. Any employee, meaning also entry-level mail room people, which is the specific instance from the comics I can think of.
He also sits on the Arkham Parole board, giving criminals like Harley Quinn a chance to be rehabilitated. In the new 52, he even moves Arkham into Wayne Manor (Arkham Academy— it’s actually a totally bananas concept but I haven’t read the issues yet to really know more).
Then there are the divisions of Wayne Enterprises, which include a healthcare system for Gotham citizens. Wayne Biotech is cutting edge in training people and developing vaccinations and cures for different diseases, like the fight against AIDS and HIV and reconstructive plastic surgery. Wayne Foods focuses on ethical food production, getting rid of additives. Wayne Steel develops technology for the US Navy and WayneYards does the same. Wayne Aerospace builds for NASA and the US military. Wayne Chemicals includes Wayne Oil and Wayne Botanical and search for petrochemicals and alternative fuel sources. They came up with a way to run power generators on algae. Wayne Industries, the main R&D branch, are looking for cleaner energy among many other things. Wayne Medical is more focused on treating illnesses as opposed to researching illnesses (which is what Wayne Biotech does) and maintains/runs hospitals in Gotham through the Thomas Wayne Foundation. Wayne Institute is a thinktank and recruits up-and-coming professionals to plan future development. Wayne Research Institute basically just does research on everything. Wayne Construction built a free railway system around Gotham in the midst of government corruption. Throughout all his business endeavors, Wayne Enterprises aims to practice business ethically, cutting ties with LexCorp when they did some weird robot killer thing and Dr. Pamela Isley (later Poison Ivy) when she wanted to create some toxin that would mind-control people.
I mean, even when Bruce Wayne was being impersonated (long story, read Heart of Hush), the most sinister thing Tommy Elliot did as Bruce Wayne was give away buttloads more money to charity.
sources: my own memory and comic book collection (Batman: Hush is a good one, uhh, Superman, Superman Wedding issue, Catwoman volume 2, Red Robin 04, Nightwing, Son of Batman, Detective Comics, Batman Incorporated, Robin, Batgirl, the Outsiders, Birds of Prey, Supergirl, Flash under Wally West.. okay, there are too many to list), x, x, x, x, x
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