The Giving Pledge

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^[update], 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]

The Giving Pledge

Formation	2010; 14 years ago (2010)
Type	Charitable organization
Membership	236
Founders	Bill Gates Warren Buffett
Website	givingpledge.org

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 2022 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	184.7[14]	Tesla, SpaceX	Electric vehicles, Rocketry	2012
Larry Ellison	148.7[15]	Oracle	Tech	2010
Warren Buffett	131.5[16]	Berkshire Hathaway	Finance & Investments	2010
Bill Gates	128.9[17]	Microsoft	Software, Tech	2010
Mark Zuckerberg	176[18]	Meta Platforms	Tech	2010
MacKenzie Scott	55	Amazon	Tech	2019
Azim Premji	32.8	Wipro	Tech	2013
Vladimir Potanin	31.4[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

• Charity (practice)
• Charitable organization
• Earning to give
• Effective altruism
• List of members of the Forbes 400
• Philanthrocapitalism
• The World's Billionaires
• Venture philanthropy
• Giving What We Can

References

1. "FAQ: How many people have joined the Giving Pledge, and where are they from?". The Giving Pledge. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
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. 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 , retrieved 25 October 2011
8. ""Warren Buffett, Bill Gates Giving Pledge Gets 12 More Billionaires To Commit Over Half Of Their Fortunes", Huffington Post, April 20, 2012". Archived from the original on May 2, 2012. Retrieved October 7, 2012.
9. Lorenzetti, Laura (1 June 2016). "17 More Billionaires Join Buffett and Gates' Giving Pledge This Year". Fortune. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
10. Alexander, Sophie (2022-12-14). "Sam Bankman-Fried Cut From Giving Pledge Website After Arrest". Bloomberg L.P. Archived from the original on 2022-12-14. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
11. McEvoy, Jemima (25 September 2023). "Billionaire T. Denny Sanford Cut From The Giving Pledge After Child Porn Probe Documents Released". Forbes. Archived from the original on 26 September 2023. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
12. Oster, Marcy (2020-05-14). "New Jewish giving pledge takes a page from Gates and Buffett initiative". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Archived from the original on 2023-10-09. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
13. "Pledgers". The Giving Pledge. Archived from the original on 9 January 2022. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
14. "Elon Musk". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2014-02-10. Retrieved 2024-04-16.
15. "Larry Ellison". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2018-01-31. Retrieved 2024-04-16.
16. "Warren Buffett". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2020-08-15. Retrieved 2024-04-16.
17. "Bill Gates". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2017-08-20. Retrieved 2024-04-16.
18. "Mark Zuckerberg". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2011-09-28. Retrieved 2024-04-16.
19. "Vladimir Potanin". Bloomberg Billionaires Index. 22 November 2022. Archived from the original on 23 November 2022. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
20. "Andrew Forrest". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2023-02-24. Retrieved 2023-02-24.
21. Robin, Myriam (2013-02-20). "Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest pledges to give away half his wealth". SmartCompany. Archived from the original on 2023-02-24. Retrieved 2023-02-24.
22. "John Doerr". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2019-05-14. Retrieved 2024-04-16.
23. Dwyer, Jim (2017-01-05). "'James Bond of Philanthropy' Gives Away the Last of His Fortune". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2017-01-10. Retrieved 2017-01-05.
24. "Judy Faulkner". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2022-08-15. Retrieved 2022-08-15.
25. "Judy Faulkner – The Giving Pledge". The Giving Pledge. Archived from the original on 2022-08-15. Retrieved 2022-08-15.
26. "Yuri Milner". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2017-07-10. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
27. Denham, Hannah (2019-07-01). "Home Depot co-founder plans to give away most of his billions". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2021-02-03. Retrieved 2022-11-16.
28. Nussbaum-Cohen, Debra (2019-12-20). "Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus on sunsetting his foundation". Jewish Insider. Archived from the original on 2022-11-17. Retrieved 2022-11-16.
29. "Thomas Secunda". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2022-09-01. Retrieved 2021-12-29.
30. "Charles Zegar". Forbes Profile. 23 November 2022. Archived from the original on 23 November 2022. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
31. Kolodny, Lora (2017-11-22). "Uber and Infosys co-founders are latest billionaires to join The Giving Pledge". CNBC. Archived from the original on 2017-12-17. Retrieved 2017-12-16.
32. "Ted Turner". Forbes. 23 November 2022. Archived from the original on 23 November 2022. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
33. "James Stowers, U.S." Forbes. Archived from the original on 2022-02-17. Retrieved 2021-12-29.
34. "Forbes.com: Forbes World's Richest People 2005". www.forbes.com. Archived from the original on 2021-12-29. Retrieved 2021-12-29.
35. "Sandy Weill". Forbes Profile. 6 April 2021. Archived from the original on 23 November 2022. Retrieved 23 November 2022.

External links

• Official website