But the Lynches, who are quiet about their wealth, estimated by Boston Magazine at $352 million in 2006, are doing more than just giving away money. They make their grants, which range from $25,000 to $1 million, alongside other foundations to amplify their impact while also remaining personally involved in some of the charities.

Last week, at the outset of the giving season, I decided to look at two philanthropists, one a billionaire, the other a multimillionaire. I spoke first with the billionaire Jon Huntsman Sr., who announced a $100 million gift to the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Utah, bringing his total donations to cancer research to $450 million of the $1.6 billion he estimated he had given away in his life. This week I’m looking at what multimillionaires like the Lynches have been doing. My goal with both was to divine lessons for the rest of us from people who give away substantial sums of money.

Like Mr. Huntsman, who grew up poor in Idaho, both of the Lynches started out modestly. When Mr. Lynch was 7, his father was found to have cancer, and he died three years later. At age 11, Mr. Lynch started caddying at a golf club outside Boston, and he later received a caddy scholarship that helped him pay for Boston College. Mrs. Lynch, who is president and chairwoman of the foundation, was the daughter of a public school principal.

Yet from the earliest years of their marriage, they said, they wrote checks to groups like the Girl Scouts — they have three daughters — their church and the Peabody Essex Museum, which was near their home in Marblehead, Mass.

In 1988, when he was 44 and she was 41, they decided to bring some structure to their giving and set up the Lynch Foundation. One goal was to have a vehicle that would allow their philanthropic dollars to grow tax-free. “A lot of people wake up at 65 and they want to do charitable giving, but they’ve been paying taxes all the way along,” said Mr. Lynch, who manages the foundation’s investments.