The Giving Pledge is a charitable campaign, launched in 2010 by Bill and Melinda French Gates and Warren Buffett, that invites the world’s wealthiest individuals and families to publicly commit to giving away at least 50% of their wealth to philanthropy, either during their lifetimes or in their wills.
The Institute for Policy Studies’ report “The Giving Pledge at 15” finds that the initiative—where billionaires publicly pledge to give at least half their wealth to charity—remains mostly unfulfilled, with most signatories far wealthier now than when they joined, and a majority of charitable giving funneled into private foundations and donor-advised funds rather than directly supporting operational charities. The IPS team, led by Chuck Collins, Bella DeVaan, Helen Flannery, and Dan Petergorsky, invites the public to examine its data and methodology. Collins is himself an Oscar Mayer heir who gave away his fortune and has dedicated his career to researching wealth inequality.
Few have fulfilled the pledge, according to the IPS calculations. Only one set of living 2010 Pledgers (Laura and John Arnold) have actually given away half their wealth. Among the 22 deceased U.S. Pledgers, only eight met their pledge before death—just one, Chuck Feeney, gave away his entire fortune while alive.
