• Over a decade of The Giving Pledge
• Too much money to donate
• Nonprofit billionaires
The Giving Pledge
“The Giving Pledge” describes a movement founded in 2010 by Bill, Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett, which encourages super-rich billionaires worldwide to use their wealth for the common good.
On its website, the organization describes its background as follows, “In August 2010, 40 of America’s wealthiest individuals came together with a commitment to use the majority of their wealth to address some of society’s most significant problems.”
The three founders of the philanthropic movement used The Giving Pledge as an open invitation to wealthy people willing to donate their funds to the greater good. After various wealthy people outside of the USA also felt addressed by the organization in the early years, The Giving Pledge went global in February 2013 and was able to attract philanthropists in Germany, India, Russia, Great Britain and Australia, among others, so that today more than 200 of the world’s richest people from a total of 28 nations belong to the Giving Pledge.
“Joining the Giving Pledge is more than just a one-time event. [
] The Giving Pledge is a moral obligation,” according to the website.
Too much money to keep the donation pledge
In addition to the founders, the members of the philanthropic club include Tesla bosses Elon MuskNetflix CEO Reed Hastings, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and former Citigroup CEO Sanford Weill.
So all these super rich individuals have pledged to donate at least half of their wealth to charity by the time they die. However, many of these followers cannot keep this “oath” even though they sincerely strive to do so. Because the assets of the members have increased so rapidly over the past ten years, i.e. since the founding of the Giving Pledge, that the available funds far exceed the donation possibilities.
According to a 2020 study by the Institute for Policy Studies, the 62 members already had combined assets of $376 billion in 2010, which has grown to $734 billion. “While some members actually want to keep their promises, many are unable to do so because their wealth has simply grown too quickly,” the study’s authors comment.
This means that the donation expenditure would have to be increased significantly by each individual so that the promise of the Giving Pledge can still be kept.
For example, Jeff Bezos and his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott are partly living up to their vows. In 2018, they jointly launched the $2 billion Day One Fund to help educate children in need. And in early 2020, Bezos committed another $10 billion to fight climate change. So considerable sums were donated here, but according to Forbes, the total fortune of the Amazon founder is around 177 billion US dollars (as of March 2, 2022).
While the assets of only eleven of the 62 members at the time have decreased due to donations over the past few years, the assets of the remaining 51 are simply increasing too quickly.
Known donations made
While critical voices accuse The Giving Pledge of wanting to claim tax benefits under the guise of charity, others see the organization as a success.
For example, donations made in recent years by Warren Buffett (US$ 2.9 billion), MacKenzie Scott (US$ 1.7 billion) and Michael Bloomberg (US$ 1.8 billion) to institutions with individual known to charitable missions.
Accordingly, unimaginable sums of money are regularly donated by the members of the Giving Pledge and used for “a good cause”. Thus, this association can be understood critically, but still as a non-profit alliance, even if many of the members do not (cannot) keep the vow to donate half of their private wealth until their death.
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