There was great fanfare 15 years ago when billionaires Warren Buffet and Bill Gates launched The Giving Pledge, in which donors of wealth agreed to give at least half of their wealth to charity. Some 57 U.S. individuals, couples, or families in the United States signed the Pledge in 2010. The signers made up around 14% of the 404 recorded billionaires in the U.S. at the time.
Today, 32 of the original U.S. Giving Pledgers are still billionaires and they have still collectively become 283% wealthier since they signed. Those who still have more than a billion dollars are worth a combined $908 billion, for an average of $28 billion per family.
There are at least 250 donors from 30 countries who have now signed onto the pledge.
Chuck Feeney, who made his fortune from duty-free shops at transportation hubs, is the only one of the 22 deceased Pledgers who gave away his entire $8 billion before he died.
That’s just some of the data in the new report The Giving Pledge at 15, from the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C.
“Based on these patterns, on the cusp of the Great Wealth Transfer to the next generation and a massive tax cut for the wealthiest Americans, our nation is about to see even more growth and concentration of philanthropic power in dynastic foundations,” according to Chuck Collins, co-author of the report, the director of the Charity Reform Initiative, and director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies. “We are facing the peril of billionaire charity dynasties.”
Laura and John Arnold are the only couple among the original pledgers who have fulfilled their commitment. The Arnolds have given away an estimated $4.76 billion, mostly to their foundation, and have $2.93 billion remaining, according to the researchers.
The original 2010 Pledgers have given an estimated $206 billion to charity. Of that amount, 80% of original Giving Pledgers’ charitable gifts, an estimated $164 billion, has gone to private foundations, garnering immediate tax reductions, before those donations reach working charities. Another estimated $5 billion likely went to donor-advised funds, according to the researchers.
Only eight of the 22 deceased Pledgers fulfilled their pledges, giving away 50% or more of their wealth while they were living or through their estates. These 22 people, including 14 of the original 2010 signers, were worth a combined $43.4 billion when they died.
In 2023, the 44 private foundations established by the living original Pledgers held a total $120 billion in assets and paid out at a median 9.2%.
It is estimated that 110 of the U.S. Giving Pledge signers are still billionaires, and they have a combined wealth of $1.7 trillion. Together, they account for almost 13% of the 876 billionaires in the U.S. The overall percentage of billionaires taking the Pledge hasn’t increased since 2010. If those Pledgers then took charitable deductions for their gifts, the U.S. Treasury could lose as much as $272 billion in reduced income, estate and capital gains taxes.