In August 2010, the world’s most successful investor in equities, Berkshire Hathaway Founder Warren Buffet, along with Microsoft Founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda French Gates (chair and co-chair of the Gates Foundation) got together to establish the Giving Pledge, a philanthropic entity,to enhance their own ongoing efforts in the field of intelligent charitable and focused giving through the Gates Foundation.
This foundation works to “help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty.”
Forty of the wealthiest families in the United States – mostly billionaires – or would be, if not for their giving – came to a historic and momentous decision the course of that year – 2010 – to make a written pledge to give a majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes during their lifetimes, or in their will.
Some eleven years later, towards the end of 2021, the number of people who’ve pledged to give at least 50 percent of their wealth for philanthropic purposes has grown from 40 to 233, nearly a six-fold increase. Those who pledged in 2010 were from the United States. Today they are from 28 countries. They range in age from the 30s to their 90s, with most of them being 50- to 70-years old bracket.
The givers in the Giving Pledge, mainly billionaires, choose the areas they want to contribute money to, based on their personal choices and preferences. The world’s most pressing problems today range from the climate crisis, diseases, extreme poverty, healthcare needs, lack of education, the need for more scientific research, and other urgent and important needs.
Those wishing to make a pledge and join this organization, are urged to send a letter to express their philanthropic wishes. A typical one is Ms. Kiran Mazumdar-Shah from India,who writes:
As the founder of a biopharmaceutical company – Biocon – I believe innovation and commerce are as powerful for driving technological advancement as they are for creating social progress….
My philanthropic efforts are largely directed towards making a difference to global healthcare especially in the developing world. I am particularly concerned about the unbearable financial burden that debilitating diseases like cancer impose on patients in poor countries. I am also conscious of the fact that two thirds of the world’s population have little or no access to an acceptable quality of healthcare. When they do, the financial challenge pushes them into poverty.
As a purpose-driven journalist, I set my own life mission as early as in my senior year in high school at the Catholic institution San Sebastian College in Manila. A key figure I have to thank for helping me set the future course of my life and for increasing my self-esteem was our Guidance Counsellor Fred Anthony Cabbab. I decided then, with his urging, to run for the our student council presidency, despite my not being a baptized Catholic nor Filipino citizen. I won with a landslide victory:85 percent of the vote. He provided tremendous help and direction that also boosted my self-esteem.
My mission since then: to help people improve people’s lives in many aspects. One of the most important and pervasive ways, based on my experience, is to provide valuable and relevant information: helpful to make peoples’ lives happy and fulfilling, more financially rewarding, more productive, and to help them develop greater concern for the well-being of the less fortunate. Asia-America Online was created to broaden our mission by providing such information, which is addition to what we have been doing for 20-plus years through BIZ INDIA Magazine since 2002, which was replaced with BIZ INDIA Online News in 2009, which exists until today.
On the Giving Pledge,in terms of its role in philanthropy, I believe no other organization comes even comes close to it in importance. The Giving Pledge is one of the most magnanimous, positive developments not only in the twenty-first century, but also in all of human history. Let us all then, thank all who’ve pledged their wealth through it. Let’s spread the good word about it, so that more of those who are able to, may pledge their money to help the unfortunate ones worldwide.
