Zuckerberg Joins 'The Giving Pledge': 17 More Billionaires To Give Away At Least Half Of Fortunes

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Another 17 U.S. billionaires, including Facebook co-founders Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz, have pledged to give away at least half their fortunes in a philanthropic campaign led by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.

A total of 57 billionaires now have joined The Giving Pledge, which was launched by Microsoft founder Gates and investor Buffett in June. The campaign announced the new pledges in a statement late on Wednesday.

Gates, his wife Melinda, and Buffett have asked U.S. billionaires to give away at least half their wealth during their lifetime or after their death, and to publicly state their intention with a letter explaining their decision.

The Giving Pledge does not accept money or tell people how to donate their money but asks billionaires to make a moral commitment to give their fortunes to charity.

"People wait until late in their career to give back. But why wait when there is so much to be done?" Zuckerberg, who gave $100 million in September to the beleaguered public schools of Newark, New Jersey, said in a statement.

"With a generation of younger folks who have thrived on the success of their companies, there is a big opportunity for many of us to give back earlier in our lifetime and see the impact of our philanthropic efforts," he said.

In addition to Zuckerberg and Moskovitz, the world's youngest billionaires, pledges were made by AOL co-founder Steve Case, financier Carl Icahn and Michael Milken, a former Wall Street executive who went to prison in the early 1990s for securities violations.

"CHANGE LIVES"

Morningstar Chief Executive Joe Mansueto, businessman Nicolas Berggruen and private investor Ted Forstmann also are among the new billionaires to take the pledges.

"In just a few short months we've made good progress," said Buffett, who made his fortune with insurance and investment company Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

"The Giving Pledge has re-energized people thinking about philanthropy and doing things in philanthropy and I look forward to many more conversations with families who are truly fortunate and whose generosity can and will change lives," he said.

Along with speaking to about a quarter of the wealthiest people in the United States about The Giving Pledge, Gates and Buffett hosted a dinner with Chinese billionaires in Beijing in September in a bid to promote a culture of philanthropy in China. The pair plan to visit India in March.

Forbes magazine said the United States is home to more than 400 billionaires, the most of any country.

Individual Americans gave more than $227 billion in 2009, according to the Giving USA report by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, down just 0.4 percent from the previous year despite the U.S. recession.

Buffett pledged in 2006 to give away 99 percent of his wealth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and family charities. Bill and Melinda Gates have so far donated more than $28 billion of their fortune to their foundation.

The full list of billionaires and their letters can be seen at www.thegivingpledge.org.
(Editing by Bill Trott)

Copyright 2010 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Comments

[GrainOfSand]

03:14 PM on 01/28/2011

I didn't hear any billionaires protest the tax break for the rich....now they are "giving away" money? I'll bet it's a drop in their big bank account(s) bucket(s)......until the Corporate Cabal starts paying it's employees better and giving better opportunities, I won't really care what they do. Actions speak louder than just throwing money at some people, which doesn't amount to anything, as rich as some of these people are. It's all for show and it's all a bunch of BS. I don't trust any corporate charity--it's all a propaganda technique to gain trust, when I wonder what else they are doing on the other side of their business dealings?

[Another Prophet]

03:02 PM on 01/02/2011

In the Gospel of Matthew 19:24 Jesus said; "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God"...humm yes, I clearly remember the last time I saw a whole camel go through the whole eye of a needle...yep.

Warren Buffet refused to support his own granddaughter and now wants all of us to know that he has asked all other billionaires to join him and give half their wealth to charity.. well...do the people who really need the assistance able to get help from some of these charities unless they submit a boat load of paperwork, sit and wait and by the time they get a response they are long dead?

The billionaires want to shout from the roof top "look, see, I did a good deed" instead of quietly helping the poor... like Oprah who lavished gifts on her audience. So, instead of giving to the single mother working two jobs because the heat will be turned off or the car repairs took the money for the electricity bill, they want to continue to hoard it off to some inept charity. But, it sounds good ..yep, but read what Jesus also said in Matthew 6:5&6 "And when thou prayest, thou shall not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be seen of men

[Chris 54321]

08:48 PM on 12/13/2010

....lets face it they made their money off of our backs - I am all for the Returning Pledge - HOWEVER, if you folks want to make a real difference, how about all you BIG MONEY folks lower the cost of your goods and services - so it does not cost us and arm and a leg to buy it - that will be a real good way to spread it around - that will make a difference in my pocket today -

[Henry Owen Creque V]

11:51 PM on 12/12/2010

what if the billionairs just combined resources and gave every American Between the age of 18 - 70 $100,000.00 how about that? would we still complain about the economy?

[skillets888]

12:05 AM on 12/13/2010

That's a fine idea...it's frustrating how sometimes the smartest solutions are the least explored. Bills would get paid, classes would be taken, health would be improved, spirits would be lifted...can't have any of that now can we?

[Gonzo36]

05:01 PM on 12/13/2010

And then once the money was spent, what would happen? I think we would be right where we started, right?

[ninesix]

07:22 PM on 01/03/2011

What a great argument.

Hey everyone! lets go out and be less ambitious!

[Michael Mouton]

04:08 PM on 12/12/2010

There is no honor in being the richest corpse in the cemetery.

[ziggrl]

03:47 PM on 12/12/2010

Those evil rich people at those evil corporations are at it again.

[ThermoChemist]

07:47 PM on 12/11/2010

"Zuckerberg Joins 'The Giving Pledge': 17 More Billionaires To Give Away
At Least Half Of Fortunes"
===========

Can we expect to find the Koch brothers on this short list..?

: )

[thesnorkler]

07:26 PM on 12/11/2010

I'll take $500.00 bucks.
Thanks!

[LittleMittens]

05:14 PM on 12/11/2010

SAYING and DOING are two VERY different things...

[Dpe]

09:26 PM on 12/10/2010

[esquilax]

07:38 PM on 12/10/2010

What would be the US equivalent of the Storming of the Bastille?

You need a revolution of the poorest and least powerful.

[hedah]

06:15 PM on 12/10/2010

CONGRATULATIONS ! 2 all those who are sympathetic 2 the needy, may God bless them with long healthy lives 2 keep doing the good deed 4 a better society.

[Chris 54321]

08:54 PM on 12/13/2010

..... ok folks - turn to your Hymnals - goin me in a verse or two of - Rack of Ages

[Eric Shun]

05:02 PM on 12/10/2010

If all of these folks want to give their money away - why not give every adult over the age of 18 (in the US) 100,000 talk about a stimulus to get the economy rolling again

[jsimpy]

11:19 PM on 12/12/2010

heck yea, that would do more for this economy than anything

[Aernout Zevenbergen]

03:14 PM on 12/10/2010

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a charity with a budget of US $ 28 billion, if I understand the text correctly.
Which charity organisation ever managed to spend that much money wisely, without drowning in its own red tape, its own protocol and its own need for institutional survival?
Charities exist not to achieve something. Charities exist to make donors feel good about themselves.

Sorry, I'm not buying into this concept.
If you feel guilty about your wealth: lower your profit margin, raise salaries and benefits and educational schemes and see how the ripple effect of that would work out.

[d00gle]

03:22 PM on 12/10/2010

Sounds like govt.

[Gerahufff]

04:06 PM on 12/10/2010

Actually, there have been a number of large foundations with great granting programs which have had a a deep and lasting impact across a broad range of areas all over this country and the world.

The James Irvine Foundation and the Ford Foundation are two of many.

On the one hand people expect foundations to do their work for free, and yet want them to also make informed decisions about their granting. In order to be successful as a foundation, research (to avoid duplication), needs assessments (to verify grant claims) and analysis (are expected grant results truly achievable?) are necessary, all requiring time and money.

Although I support higher wages and lower profit margins, it is not mutually exclusive to also create a foundation.

[hadenoughtoo]

02:24 PM on 12/10/2010

A CFR member. That figures.

http://www.cfr.org/project/1369/international_institutions_and_global_governance.html#subprojects