logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

The Giving Pledge—40 Billionaires Pledge to Give Away Half

Rick Cohen
August 5, 2010
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

 

August 4, 2010; Source: msnbc.com | Remember the Buffett challenge to get billionaires to give away half of their wealth? The investment genius from Omaha along with that computer-oriented piker from Seattle, Bill Gates, now have 40 billionaires who have signed onto this campaign, with letters expressing their charitable intent posted at givingpledge.org.

Buffett and Gates started buttonholing their rich and famous (or not so famous) peers from the Forbes 400 and ended up calling 70 to get 40, though they don’t plan to stop. The list, however, seems heavily weighted to billionaires who have already established big foundations and seemed well on their way to pledging billions to philanthropic institutions that they controlled. Some of the names on the list are well known in foundation circles, though billionaire philanthropy need not end up buried in foundation endowments.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Among them: in California, Eli and Edythe Broad (with an eponymous foundation), Ann and John Doerr (he the Silicon Valley hedge fund guy who is putting money behind the Social Innovation Fund Doerr also gave $1 million to the private prep school which the his daughter attended), Tashia and John Morgridge (Cisco Systems money), Herb and Marion Sandler (the former Golden West bank owners who are bankrolling ProPublica), Jeff Skoll (of the movies and the social entrepreneurship-oriented Skoll Foundation); in Hawai’i, Pam and Pierre Omidyar (eBay money and the Omidyar Foundation, like Skoll and Doerr focused on social entrepreneurship); in the state of Washington, Paul Allen of Microsoft keeping up with the Gateses; in New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Joan and Sanford Weill (Weill was the chair of Citicorp and, in philanthropic circles infamous for using a $1 million Citi grant to the 92nd Street Y so that a Solomon Smith Barney guy who worked for Weill could get his kids into the tony preschool); and from Texas, T. Boone Pickens (recently the visionary natural gas-as-a-substitute-for-Mideast-oil promoter, but long known as a philanthropist who pulled some unusual stunts with gifts to Oklahoma State University sports and support for political causes such as the Swift Boat Veterans ). (Find the list of all 40 here).

This trend has potential up and downsides—NPQ will be covering this story with analysis on its front page.—Rick Cohen

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
About the author
Rick Cohen

Rick joined NPQ in 2006, after almost eight years as the executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Before that he played various roles as a community worker and advisor to others doing community work. He also worked in government. Cohen pursued investigative and analytical articles, advocated for increased philanthropic giving and access for disenfranchised constituencies, and promoted increased philanthropic and nonprofit accountability.

More about: Nonprofit News

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

Spring-2023-sidebar-subscribe
You might also like
What Nigeria Can Teach the US About Food Insecurity
Chidinma Iwu
Arab American Philanthropy
Tamara El-Khoury
Forerunners of Food Justice: Black Farmer Movement Spans Generations
Demetrius Hunter
What Would a Social Justice Investment Ecosystem Look Like?
Steve Dubb
Measuring Healthcare Equity in North Carolina
Sonia Sarkar
The Nonprofit Sector and Social Change: A Conversation between Cyndi Suarez and Claire Dunning
Claire Dunning and Cyndi Suarez

NPQ Webinars

April 27th, 2 pm ET

Liberatory Decision-Making

How to Facilitate and Engage in Healthy Decision-making Processes

Register Now
You might also like
AOC’s “Tax the Rich” Dress Dazzles Met Gala, while...
Anastasia Reesa Tomkin
Foundation Giving Numbers for 2020 Show 15 Percent Increase
Steve Dubb
Strike MoMA Imagines Art Museums without Billionaires
Tessa Crisman

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

NPQ-Spring-2023-cover

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.