The Story
A few years back a friend of mine who has a yeshiva went to get an interest-free loan from a very well known philanthropist.  The man was very accommodating and set up very amenable repayment terms that the yeshiva fulfilled.  But before issuing the loan, the man became very austere as if he was about to complete a major transaction.  I cannot recall all the details of the transaction, but I vaguely remember that it was a very difficult process.  He called in his comptroller and asked if he could afford to make the loan.  When he was informed that he was liquid enough, he asked to have the payments given in advance with post-dated checks.  He also asked for people to guarantee the loan.  He needed one co-signer for every twenty percent of the loan.  After doing a D and B on them, they each had to sign a document guaranteeing the full amount of the loan and then have the document notarized.  The loan document had to be signed by two witnesses and the signature of the Dean was also to be notarized.

During the meeting, the benefactor was interrupted by a phone call from a poor man from Israel.  It seemed that the fellow on the other end of the line was in dire straits and needed to marry off a child.  In an instant, the philanthropist reassured him that he would issue an overseas wire of an extremely large amount - equal to nearly the amount of the entire loan that my friend's Yeshiva was receiving!

My friend recounted how he was in awe and mustered the courage to ask, "Do you know this man from Israel?"  The man responded, "vaguely" which prompted my friend to brazenly challenge his benefactor. "I don't understand," he began. "You know me.  You know my yeshiva.  Yet you insist on having so many different people involved in our transaction.  However, you hardly know this man to whom you just gifted tens of thousands of dollars; you did not even bring anyone else into your confidence.  How is that possible?"

The man smiled. "You did not ask for tzedakah.  You asked for a loan. A loan is business.  When I do business, I do my utmost to ensure that my interests are protected.  Thus I have to involve many people.  When I give charity is a different matter.  What I give and to whom I give is solely a decision between me and the recipient.  I do not have to involve anyone else."