Giving Pledge founded by Buffet & Gates is a group for billionaires who publicly promise to donate.
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The Giving Pledge is a group for billionaires who publicly promise to donate at least half of their wealth to charity during their lifetime or upon death. Buffett founded it in 2010 with Bill Gates, and the Giving Pledge now has 156 members, many of whom sign along with their spouse, showing that it's a family commitment.
Each member writes a letter explaining why they are making the decision, and Buffett says these are not merely press releases, and may even be more important than any single donation “because they're messages to the future“.
He is especially proud of the younger signatories, like the co-founders of Airbnb. “I tell them, every one of them is worth 10 of me because you're going to have young people, particularly in this day and age, get wealthy very early and they're going to look to the people who are their heroes, whether it 's Mark Zuckerberg or Brian Chesky,“ he said.
Excerpts from some of the letters follow:
Manoj Bhargava, CEO, Innovation Ventures “My choice was to ruin my son's life by giving him money or giving 90+ per cent to charity. Not much of a choice. Service to others seems the only intelligent choice for the use of wealth.“
Brian Chesky, Founder, Airbnb “We all live with unknown potential. The younger you are, the more unknown it is.But the clock ticks by every day of your life. And each day someone young isn't exposed to what is possible, their potential slowly dims ... I would like to help them dream.“
Airbnb's Brian Chesky (Image: AP)
Sunny Varkey, Chairman, GEMS Global “Even when my father earned a small amount, a large percentage was shared with the community we lived in, sometimes at the cost of our own comfort. To this day, our underlying philosophy remains that good giving `pinch that good giving `pinches', meaning the sacrifice that you make, has to be felt, else the act remains just a not her financial transaction in our lives...“
GEMS Global's Sunny Varkey (Image: BCCL)
Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro “In those days, a newly independent India was abuzz with a sense of idealism and a genuine sense of nation-building; this influenced me as well. I was deeply influenced by Gandhi's notion of holding one's wealth in trusteeship, to be used for the betterment of society and not as if one owned it.“
Wipro's Azim Premji (Image: BCCL)
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairman, Biocon “Having grown up in a middle-class family in India, I was brought up by my parents to believe that wealth creation is about making a difference to society.“
Biocon's Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (Image: BCCL)
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook “We'll make long term bets that others won't make and that will take a decade or longer to achieve their goals. We'll learn from each project and apply those lessons to future work. That's why we're starting and making this commitment now while we're still early in our careers -so we can gain experience early and be come more effective in our giving over time.“
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg (Image: AFP)
Bill Ackman, CEO, Pershing Square Capital Management “I am not a particularly religious person, and believe that my limited time on earth is all that I am going to get. And I have lived with that undererg standing, doing my best to extract as much out of life as I can. I get tremendous pleasure from helping others. It's what makes my life worth living.“
Sara Blakely, Founder, Spanx lose sight that I was born “I never lose sight that I was born in the right country, at the right time. And, I never lose sight of the fact that there are millions of women around the world who are not dealt the same deck of cards upon their birth. Simply because of their gender, they are not given the same chance I had to create my own success and follow my dreams. It is for those women that I make this pledge.“
Ray Dalio, Founder, Bridgewater Associates “We were lucky enough to have experienced the full range of financial circumstances. When we earned more money, we experienced relief and then the diminishing returns of having more money.We learned that beyond having enough money to help secure the basics -quality relationships, health, stimulating ideas, etc. -having more money, while nice, wasn't all that important. So we found taking our excesses and providing it to others who have an extreme shortage has been both a good investment and a great satisfaction.“
Michael Bloomberg, CEO, Bloomberg LP “One of the senior managers at my company, Bloomberg LP, recently told me that part of his new hires recruiting pitch is to ask, `What other company can you work for where the owner gives nearly all the profits to charity?' Nothing has ever .made me prouder of my company than that one story.“
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