Will The “Giving Pledge” Work?
It’s been all over the news: Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet are “challenging” their fellow millionaires to give away at least 50% of their assets to charity. The Giving Pledge is a public statement of the commitment of these wealthy individuals to charity, but will it work?
It is estimated that if the people on the Forbes 400 list made the pledge, it would result in an additional $600 billion being gifted to nonprofits. But how? And – most importantly to a lot of critics – WHEN?
That’s the biggest critique Ron Rosenbaum of Slate has with the pledge: because the commitment is made to donate sometime during or after the life of the billionaire, what’s the impetus not to spend the money during their lifetime? Will all of these billionaires really save up their assets to give to charity? Maybe, maybe not.
Pablo Eisenberg from the Georgetown Public Policy Institute is concerned that donations made by our country’s most wealthy individuals are usually to universities, hospitals, and arts and culture organizations. He writes in the Chronicle of Philanthropy that this group “rarely make(s) large gifts to social-service groups, grassroots organizations, or nonprofit groups that focus on the poor or minorities.” Now is that necessarily a bad thing? I don’t think so.
Look, we certainly can’t tell people how to give, and any money to charity is good, but I see the point being made that there are people suffering all across the world who need donations and need them now, and this Giving Pledge may not be addressing that need.
It’s also interesting to note that the media surrounding the Giving Pledge comes out almost simultaneously with research from UC Berkeley, showing that the lower-income population donate a larger percentage of their income to charity than do upper-income citizens. Interesting!
So what does that mean for the ultra-rich givers of our country? I sure hope this Giving Pledge is as successful as it should be. Take a look at the Giving Pledge website here (and see who’s already committed to give) and let me know what YOU think.
