What is the Meaning of The Giving Pledge and Who Has Joined?

The Giving Pledge is a moral commitment made by people of means to give away more than half of their money to help solve society’s most pressing issues. Billionaires Yuri Milner, MacKenzie Scott, and Mark Zuckerberg who joined the Giving Pledge can give to their favorite charities, private foundations, and philanthropic groups. They promise to give throughout their lives and in their wills when they pass away.

Bill Gates, the man who founded Microsoft, and Warren Buffett, the Chairman, and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, are two of the world’s wealthiest persons today. They became friends by devoting their lives to solving important societal issues. Bill and Melinda Gates established the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to which Buffet contributed a large portion of his fortune. Even with the world’s biggest private foundation, decreasing severe poverty and illness requires significantly more resources than they currently have. Gates and Buffett began talking to other billionaires regularly. The Giving Pledge for Billionaires was founded by Gates and Buffet in 2010 as a forum for contributing, learning, and encouraging generosity in others.

Who Has Joined The Giving Pledge?

Established billionaires from around the world, as well as younger billionaires, including Sara Blankley, the creator of Spanx, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, and his wife, Priscilla Chan, and Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky, the co-founders of Airbnb, joined the Giving Pledge. More than 150 signers have a combined net worth of $780 billion today.

Anil Agarwal

Agarwal has amassed a multi-billion dollar wealth through his ownership of London-based Vedanta Resources. He is known for converting a small scrap metal business into a worldwide natural resource firm. Agarwal, who was born in Mumbai but now resides in London, intends to concentrate his charitable giving in India.

Yuri Milner and Julia Milner

Yuri Milner began his career as a theoretical physicist specializing in quantum field theory. He founded DST Global, one of the world’s most successful internet investment organizations, after starting and growing a profitable internet startup. Its clients include Facebook, Twitter, Alibaba, and Spotify.

Yuri Milner and his wife Julia joined the Giving Pledge, committing resources mostly to scientific causes. In 2012, they co-founded the Breakthrough Prize alongside Sergei Brin, Priscilla Chan, Mark Zuckerberg, and Ann Wojcicki. With Stephen Hawking, Yuri co-founded the Breakthrough Initiatives in 2007, looking for extraterrestrial life and civilizations while developing the first feasible technology for interstellar space transport. Yuri and Julia’s charity has also funded humanitarian projects including anti-Covid-19 medical equipment and relief for refugees from Ukraine.

Steven Schuurman

Schuurman founded the open-source software businesses SpringSource and Elastic. VMware bought the former for $420 million in 2009. After its October 2018 IPO, he became a billionaire. The Giving Pledge describes Schuurman as “dedicating all of his time and resources to protecting and preserving the planet for future generations.” He launched FutureNL in 2014 to improve digital literacy in Dutch primary and secondary schools. He also serves on the board of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

In addition to encouraging the world’s billionaires to donate to charities, the Giving Pledge has also organized learning sessions for pledge signers to meet one another and learn from one another’s philanthropic experiences.