Fortune’s Carol Loomis reports that Bill Gates, Melinda Gates andWarren Buffett are making a plea to the nation’s richest citizens. They are asking the nation’sbillionaires to pledge at least half their net worth to charity, in their lifetimes or at death. Gates tells Fortune that he thinks 50 percent should be the “low bar” and that people should actally givemore. Buffet also reaffirmed his own philanthropypedge saying that he and his family decided to “keep all we can conceivably need and distribute the rest to society, for its needs” giving away more than 99 percent of his wealth.
And they aren’t alone. Fortune says that other billionaires who have already committed to at least a 50 percent pledge include Eli and Edy Broad, John and Ann Doerr, H.F. “Gerry” and Marguerite Lenfest and John and Tashia Morgridge. The Fortune article goes on to say that after the first billionaires’ dinner there were several more dinners set up by the Gateses. Part of the goal was just to talk about giving and why some people don’t give as much as they could. In the article Melinda Gates explains that the first part of the pledge campaign is just to help move people forward in the direction of thinking about giving and what good their money can do in the world and to plan ahead. The initiative is a long-term one and given, the potential money at stake, one which has the power to reimagine the social landscape.
