The Giving Pledge

The Giving Pledge
Formation2010; 15 years ago (2010)
TypeCharitable organization
Membership236
Founders
Bill Gates
Warren Buffett
Websitegivingpledge.org
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The Giving Pledge is a charitable campaign, founded by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, to encourage wealthy people to contribute a majority (i.e. more than 50%) of their wealth to philanthropic causes. As of June 2022, the pledge has had 236 signatories from 28 countries.[1] Most of the signatories of the pledge are billionaires, at a total of US$600 billion.[2]

Description

The organization's stated goal is to inspire the wealthy people of the world to give at least half of their net worth to philanthropy, either during their lifetime or upon their death. The pledge is a public gesture of an intention to give, not a legal contract.[3] On the Giving Pledge's website, each individual or couple writes a letter explaining why they chose to give.[4]

History

In June 2010, the Giving Pledge campaign was formally announced and Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates, and Warren Buffett began recruiting members.[5] As of August 2010, the aggregate wealth of the first 40 pledgers was $125 billion.[6] As of April 2011, 69 billionaires had joined the campaign and given a pledge,[7] and by the following year, The Huffington Post reported that a total of 81 billionaires had pledged.[8] By May 2017, 158 individuals and/or couples were listed as pledgers.[4][9][needs update] Not all pledgers are billionaires.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was removed from the list in December 2022 following his arrest.[10]

Banker T. Denny Sanford had his name removed from the list in May 2023 following the unsealing of court documents about his possible involvement with child pornography.[11]

The Giving Pledge was cited as inspiration for the Jewish Future Pledge, a charitable campaign launched in 2020 to encourage American Jews to give at least half of their charitable giving to Jewish- or Israel-related causes.[12]

List of notable pledgers

Net worth is as of 2024 for notable signers. A full list of pledgers is available online.[13]

Name Net worth in billion $US Source of wealth Industry Year of pledge Year of death
Elon Musk 320.02[14] Tesla, SpaceX Electric vehicles, Rocketry 2012
Larry Ellison 231.8[15] Oracle Tech 2010
Warren Buffett 146.8[16] Berkshire Hathaway Finance & Investments 2010
Bill Gates 105.1[17] Microsoft Software, Tech 2010
Mark Zuckerberg 201.7[18] Meta Platforms Tech 2010
MacKenzie Scott 38.6 Amazon Tech 2019
Azim Premji 12.3 Wipro Tech 2013
Vladimir Potanin 23.7[19] interros Investment 2013
Jim Simons 25.2 Renaissance Technologies Finance & Investments 2010 2024
Dustin Moskovitz 24.04 Facebook Tech 2010
Carl Icahn 22 Icahn Enterprises Finance & Investments 2010
Pierre Omidyar 21.8 eBay Tech 2010
Andrew Forrest 20.8 (2023)[20] Fortescue Metals Group Mining 2013[21]
John Doerr 12.7[22] Kleiner Perkins Finance & Investments 2010
Patrick Soon-Shiong 11.5 Abraxane, investments Healthcare 2010
Melinda French Gates 11.4 Microsoft Tech 2010
Jack Dangermond 9.2 ESRI Geoinformatics, Environment 2016
Cliff Obrecht and Melanie Perkins 9.2 Canva Tech 2021
George Lucas 8.59 Lucasfilm Media 2010
Nikhil Kamath 8 Zerodha Finance & Investments 2023
Charles Feeney 8[23] DFS Group luxury retail 2011 2023
George Kaiser 7.6 Kaiser-Francis Oil Company Energy 2010
Judith Faulkner 7.5[24] Epic Systems Tech 2015[25]
Yuri Milner 6.8[26] DST Global Technology investing 2013
Henry Samueli 6.7 Broadcom Corporation Tech 2011
Jeffrey Skoll 6.1 eBay Tech 2010
Mitchell and Emily Wei Rales 5.4 Danaher Corporation Business 2019
Bernard Marcus 4.5[27] to 6.1[28] (2019) The Home Depot Retail 2010 2024
Barron Hilton 4.5 Hilton Worldwide Services 2010 2019
David Green 4.5 Hobby Lobby Retail 2010
Jeff Green 4.4 AdECN Tech 2021
Ronald Perelman 4.3 MacAndrews & Forbes Finance & Investments 2010
David Rubenstein 4.3 The Carlyle Group Finance & Investments 2010
Walter Scott Jr. 4.2 Berkshire Hathaway Finance & Investments 2010 2021
Julian Robertson 4.1 Tiger Management Finance & Investments 2010 2022
Anil Agrawal 4 Vedanta Resources Mining 2021
Thomas Secunda 3.6[29] Bloomberg L.P Tech 2010
B. R. Shetty 3.5 NMC Health Healthcare 2018
David Rockefeller 3.3 Standard Oil, inheritance Energy 2010 2017
Ken Langone 3.3 The Home Depot Retail 2010
Bill Ackman 2.8 Pershing Square Capital Management Finance & Investments 2012
Charles Zegar 2.8[30] Bloomberg L.P Tech 2010
Peter G. Peterson 2.8 Blackstone Group Finance & Investments 2010 2018
Garrett Camp[31] 2.7 Uber Tech 2017
Brian Armstrong 2.6 Coinbase Cryptocurrency 2018
Ted Turner 2.4[32] Cable News Network Media 2010
Herbert and Marion Sandler 2.4 Golden West Financial Corporation Finance & Investments 2010
Gerry Lenfest and Marguerite Lenfest 2.4 Lenfest Communications Media 2010 2018
T. Denny Sanford 2.2 First PREMIER Bank Finance & Investments 2010
James E. Stowers 2[33] Twentieth Century Mutual Funds Finance & Investments 2010
Tom Steyer 1.6 Farallon Capital Finance & Investments 2010
George P. Mitchell 1.6 Mitchell Energy & Development Corp Energy 2010
Ted Forstmann 1.6 Forstmann Little & Company Finance & Investments 2010
Jon Huntsman Sr. 1.5 Huntsman Corporation Manufacturing 2010
Mark Pincus 1.4 Zynga Tech 2022
Sidney Kimmel 1.4 Jones Apparel Group Fashion & Cosmetics 2010
Irwin M. Jacobs 1.2 Qualcomm Tech 2010
Bernard Osher 1.1[34] Golden West Financial Corporation Finance & Investments 2010
Duncan MacMillan 1.1 Bloomberg L.P Tech 2010
Lorry I. Lokey 1 Business Wire Media 2010 2022
Sanford I. Weill 1[35] (2021) Shearson Loeb Rhoades Finance & Investments 2010
John Morgridge 1 Cisco Systems Tech 2010
Tom Monaghan 1 Domino's Pizza Food & Beverage 2010
Lyda Hill 1 Hunt Oil Company, inheritance Energy 2010
Anne Wojcicki 0.8 23andMe Genealogy 2022
Shelby White 0.6[citation needed] Leon Levy, Odyssey Partners Finance & Investments 2010
T. Boone Pickens 0.5 Mesa Petroleum, BP Capital Management Energy, Finance & Investments 2010 2019

See also

References

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  2. ^ "Global Billionaire Population: The Billionaire Census 2018". Wealth-X. Archived from the original on 6 January 2021. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
  3. ^ "Forty U.S. billionaires pledge to give half their money to charity". Xinhua News Agency. 4 August 2010. Archived from the original on 11 August 2010. Retrieved 5 August 2010. A statement from the Giving Pledge website said "the pledge is a moral commitment to give, not a legal contract."
  4. ^ a b The Giving Pledge :: Pledger Profiles Archived 2017-04-17 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 16 May 2017
  5. ^ Carol Loomis (16 June 2010). "The $600 billion challenge". Fortune. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
  6. ^ Blackburn, Bradley (4 August 2010). "The Giving Pledge: Billionaires Promise to Donate at Least Half Their Fortunes to Charity". ABC News. Archived from the original on 1 May 2018. Retrieved 5 August 2010.
  7. ^ 10 More U.S. Families Commit to the Giving Pledge [1], retrieved 25 October 2011
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