According to an online article: The United States of America has 492 billionaires, the world has 1,645, and the average net worth between them is $4.7 billion. Among these elite monetary giants is a trend of giving back, spearheaded by Bill and Melinda Gates, as well as Warren Buffet. They are the leaders of the “Giving Pledge”, where those who have signed this pledge are worth over $1 billion dollars and promise to give half of their net worth away over their lifetime.
Buffet himself has promised to give away 99% of his wealth to charitable causes. Bill and Melinda Gates have promised to give away 95% of their wealth as well. These two power philanthropists have started their own charitable foundation called the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, focused on the reduction of poverty and disease across the planet.
Those who pledge have all types of channels to carry out their promise, the idea behind the promise is not to congregate all the money in one place, but to purely spread donations to anywhere they see fit. Bill and Melinda Gates have an aim to make philanthropy a diverse happening throughout today’s wealthy. By making the pledge numerical in nature, it holds people to a set promise and achieves a quantifiable goal to reach.
David Callahan, founder of Inside Philanthropy, spoke about how much more is in store in the next few years from these billionaires as this contagious trend spreads, “The philanthropy we’ve seen in recent years is nothing compared to what’s coming.”
Bill Gates leads the pledgers in net worth, with $76 billion, which is the richest in the world. Callahan praises Gates by saying,” He’s given away more than anyone…”
