These Billionaires Pledged To Give Away Their Wealth. Instead, Most Are Getting Wealthier

Newsweek

18 hours ago

Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the interpretation of facts and data.
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
The Giving Pledge just turned 15.
Bill Gates, Melinda French, and Warren Buffett founded the Pledge in August 2010 to boost charitable giving among billionaires. Pledgers agree to give away half or more of their wealth within their lifetimes, or upon their deaths.
The effort was inspired by Duty Free Shoppers founder Chuck Feeney, the reluctant billionaire who advocated "giving while living." Feeney gave away over $8 billion before he died, relinquishing his billionaire status to live a more modest life. "[Feeney] told me we should encourage people not to give just 50 percent," Gates recounted, "but as much as possible during their lifetime."
The Giving Pledge is the largest and most visible public commitment that billionaires have made to distribute their vast fortunes. Over 256 individuals, couples, and families have signed, including 194 from the United States.
U.S. money is pictured.
U.S. money is pictured.
Getty Images
Our tax code's charitable deductions effectively allow billionaires to "opt out" of taxes—ostensibly to give back through charity. In the absence of higher taxes on the wealthy that could fund a stronger social safety net, voluntary commitments like the Giving Pledge are important.
But in an era of staggering wealth inequality—and tax avoidance—privately held fortunes are larger than anyone can fathom. And charitable contributions simply aren't keeping up with what could be raised from a fairer tax code.
In our new report, The Giving Pledge at 15, we found that the explosive growth of Giving Pledgers' wealth is outpacing their giving. At this rate, the Giving Pledge appears to be mostly an empty promise.
Along with our co-authors Helen Flannery and Dan Petegorsky, we analyzed the philanthropic records of the pledgers.
Some are bold and direct, like MacKenzie Scott, who's vowed to "keep at it until the safe is empty." Others need to pick up the pace, like John Paul DeJoria, whose foundation has awarded $54 million since its inception eight years ago—a paltry sum compared to his roughly $3 billion fortune. And there are those who seem to cravenly intertwine personal benefit with philanthropy—like Elon Musk, who in 2021 enjoyed some fortuitously timely tax relief from a stock transfer to his foundation.
Across nearly every example, there's proof that the Pledge is unfulfilled, unfulfillable, and not our ticket to a fairer, better future.
If hundreds of billionaires pledge to give away half their wealth in their lifetimes, we should expect that some would have less wealth than when they took the Pledge. But when adjusted for inflation, the 32 original U.S. pledgers who are still billionaires have collectively gotten 166 percent wealthier since they signed on in 2010. (Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan's wealth has increased an inflation-adjusted 2,919 percent since 2010!)
Only one couple in this group, Laura and John Arnold, has fulfilled their commitment, moving billions in their lifetime—mostly to their own foundation. But that raises another issue.
By our count, 80 percent of Giving Pledge donations have gone to private foundations—and billions more to other intermediaries. Donors get an immediate tax deduction, but the funds can remain sidelined for generations before they're granted out to real working charities—if ever.
Play this out another 15 years and we'll witness the rise of family-controlled dynastic foundations worth trillions.
These foundations will wield tremendous power, especially as their windfalls contrast with catastrophic cuts to the social safety net like those in the GOP's Big Beautiful Bill. A select few families will essentially decide how publicly subsidized funds are spent, concentrating power over our politics and civil society and jeopardizing our democracy.
At 15, the Giving Pledge must either go big or reconsider its value. One path forward is to encourage a "Feeney Giving Pledge," an augmented commitment for existing pledgers to pay their fair share of taxes, give more while alive, and empower organizations led by non-billionaires to solve the urgent problems of our day.
Feeney's example echoed in Bill Gates's May announcement that he would donate 99 percent of his Microsoft stock to his foundation, which he's pledged to wind down and close within 20 years.
This voluntary effort would pair nicely with structural reforms. We should tax billionaires at a fair rate. And taxpayer-subsidized foundations and donor-advised funds (DAFs) should be subject to stronger transparency rules—and required to grant out funds to real, working charities more quickly.
If billionaires' best intentions can't deliver a fairer economy, then it's up to the rest of us not to count on them.
Chuck Collins directs the Program on Inequality at the Institute for Policy Studies.
Bella DeVaan is the associate director of the IPS Charity Reform Initiative.
They're coauthors of the new IPS report The Giving Pledge at 15.
The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.