11 New Members Join The Gates-Buffett Giving Pledge
By Thomas Gallagher
Cameron Adams, the Australian billionaire cofounder of Canva, and his wife Lisa Miller, have just joined the Giving Pledge.
In its largest cohort since 2021, the Giving Pledge announced 11 new signatories in 2025 who have pledged to donate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes in their lifetime or in their wills. Nine of the new signees hail from the U.S., one from Australia and one from the U.A.E. Six of the new pledgers are members of Forbes billionaires' list and have a combined estimated net worth of $9.3 billion.
The wealthiest among them, Cameron Adams, worth an estimated $2.9 billion, is cofounder and chief product officer of graphic design software company Canva. He joins Canva's married cofounders, Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht, who signed the pledge in 2021; Adams joined the pledge with his wife Lisa Miller. The couple's Wedgetail Foundation is devoted to conserving and restoring biodiversity. The second wealthiest in the cohort, Drew Houston, worth an estimated $2.1 billion, is cofounder and CEO of file hosting service Dropbox; Houston joins with his wife, Erin. Additional signatories include Syntel founder Bharat Desai ($1.6B) and his cofounder and wife Neerja Sethi ($1B), who support economic mobility, education and entrepreneurship; Square (now called Block) cofounder Jim McKelvey ($1.6B) and his wife Anna; and founder and CEO of Cambridge, Massachusetts life sciences venture capital firm Flagship Pioneering Noubar Afeyan ($1.2B) and his wife Anna Afeyan Gunnarson.
Other newcomers include Emirati businesswoman Muna Easa Al Gurg; Joseph Deitch, the founder and chairman of investment adviser Commonwealth Financial Network; venture capitalist Jay Hoag and his wife Michaela, who founded Part the Cloud, which raises funds for Alzheimer's disease research.
The Giving Pledge was created in 2010 by billionaire philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett in an effort to address the world's most urgent issues. Fifteen years ago the Giving Pledge launched with 40 American philanthropists. Since then, over 210 signatories have signed on, including some of the world's wealthiest people, such as Elon Musk, worth an estimated $430 billion and Mark Zuckerberg, worth an estimated $221 billion. And the pledge has attracted wealthy philanthropists from around the globe, from India to Indonesia and beyond.
The pledge is a promise, not a contract, and those who run the Giving Pledge do not audit billionaires' giving. Some signers, like Charles Feeney (d. 2023), cofounder of Duty Free Shoppers, gave away far more than half of his fortune to charitable causes. For many other pledgers, including some who have passed away, it's not clear whether or not they have held up their charitable promise.
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