Fifteen years ago, The Giving Pledge campaign was started by Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates and Warren Buffet with participants pledging to give at least 50% of their worldly wealth to charity. After 15 years of being launched, The Giving Pledge can be said to have failed after only 9 of the 256 individuals or couples who pledged have fulfilled their promise.
This is according to a report published by the Institute for Policy Studies last week. Of these, 22 billionaires who pledged have already died and only 8 have given at least half of their wealth to charity. Meanwhile, Laura and John Arnold are the only living couple who have given half of their wealth.
However, 80% of the donated wealth has been channeled to personal foundations and not to organizations in need as recommended by The Giving Pledge. In fact, Bill Gates himself gave his entire $200 billion price tag to the Gates Foundation last May.
Other statistics revealed are that of the 256 individuals and couples, 194 are from the United States with the remaining 62 from other countries. Of the 194 American billionaires, only 110 are still billionaires with a combined net worth of $1.7 trillion.
Among the billionaires who have pledged are Tan Sri Vincent Tan, Dato’ Sri Tahir, Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, MacKenzie Scott, and George Lucas.