WSJ Magazine over the weekend
featured an article on the "Giving Pledge," calling the billionaires who signed the pledge (69 total so far) the "Philanthropy Innovators of the Year" for 2011.
For those who haven't been following the story, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates started the Giving Pledge in June 2010, urging other billionaires to follow their example and publicly pledge to give away at least half their fortunes to charity. According to the article, the 69 signers of the pledge represent $150 billion in philanthropic commitments.
This may seem like a large sum - and it is - but it represents only approximately half of all charitable giving in the U.S.
in one year,
according to Giving USA Foundation. So is the Giving Pledge truly a sea change in philanthropy? Would these billionaires have focused on philanthropy at some point anyway, particularly during estate planning, only not as publicly?
Any movement that encourages philanthropy ought to be praised. Buffett and Gates have once again applied their innovative thinking to a new endeavor - and the real innovation is the public way in which the Giving Pledge is applied. Philanthropy, at least as far as the pledge signers goes, is not a private act anymore.
Of course, I have met many donors who refuse to go public with their philanthropy. To them, it isn't about the recognition - it's about the act of giving.
Pledge signers aren't worried that their motives will be called into question because they are "going public." On the contrary, it appears that they hope to encourage more philanthropy
precisely because they are being so public about it.
Here's hoping more billionaires sign the pledge - and that perhaps their thinking works its way to others who don't have a billion dollars but who can make just as strong an impact by increasing what they give to charity and serving as an example for others.