The Problem With the Billionaire Promise to Give It All Away
When 40 of the U.S.’s richest residents pledged to give away half their net worth in 2010, news outlets heralded the business giants who were “giving back in a big way.” Now, with more than 200 wealthy individuals and couples signed onto the Giving Pledge, a new report finds it might not be as big as expected.
According to a recent report from the Institute for Policy Studies, the 73 living signatories who were billionaires when the pledge launched in 2010 saw their wealth more than double by the end of 2022. Thirty of them—including prominent philanthropist couples Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan and Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna—saw their wealth more than triple.
On top of that, much of that money was donated to private foundations, where it can sit indefinitely without being used to benefit anyone.