Warren Buffett wants his Giving Pledge to define philanthropy for generations.
At the 2016 Concordia Summit in New York on Tuesday, Buffett discussed the philanthropic movement with Yahoo Finance editor Andy Serwer via video conference. 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." Buffett explained that they "will be influencing philanthropy 10, 20, 50 years from now, just like Andrew Carnegie's 'Gospel of Wealth.'"
He told Serwer that he is most proud of the younger signatories, like the cofounders 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.
We've collected samples from some of the letters below, and all can be read on the Giving Pledge's website.
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Pershing Square Capital Management CEO Bill Ackman
"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 understanding, 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."
Read the full letter »
Spanx founder Sara Blakely
"I have so much gratitude for being a woman in America. 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."
Read the full letter »
Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio
"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."
Read the full letter here »
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