• Spend it?

• Invest it?

• Donate it?

• Start your own charity?

• Leave it to family in your will?

What would you do with $1 BILLION?

For 403 American billionaires &

thousands more around the world,

this is a real decision.

What will they do?

• Gates and Buffet initiative, June 2010

• Calling the world’s billionaires to give minimum of half their wealth to charity

• Giving Pledge doesn’t accept money

• Billionaires aren’t told where to donate

• Not a contract, instead a moral commitment

• Billionaires must publicly state their intention to give

• So far, 40 have pledged!

• www.givingpledge.org

Globe and Mail. Sept 8th, 2010:Gates, Buffet to wine and dine China’s super rich

•Two billionaires going to sell the Giving Pledge idea of giving to china’s richest.

•2nd largest number of billionaires in China

www.lianchang.cc

• Challenges donors to give more than ever imagined

• Gates & Buffet: 2nd & 3rd wealthiest in the world

($53 & $47 billion respectively)

• They are very influential among the wealthy

• At a min., $600 billion donated if entire Forbes 400 Richest List pledges- extreme shift in giving

• Inspirational to the public

Advantages …

What do you think?

What negative repercussions

could there be?

dailyapple.blogspot.com

• Can charities effectively manage and distribute these billions?

• Potential drop in public donations?

• Is this guilt-induced giving? Does that even matter, as long as money is being donated?

Concerns…

• Use major donors to challenge other major donors. Peer pressure works!

• Growing trend of wealthy individuals creating own foundations

i.e. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

approach these foundations for funding

What this means for fundraisers

THANKS!

Carol Goar. “Goar: Mega Donations Pose Deep Problems.” The Toronto Star. 11 Aug. 2010. http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/846321--goar-mega-donations-pose-deep-questions

thegivingpledge.org

“40 U.S. Billionaires Accept Gates, Buffet Giving Challenge.” 4 Aug. 2010. http://www.afpnet.org/Audiences/NewsReleaseDetail.cfm?ItemNumber=4543

Stephen Simpson. “Is the Billionaire Charity Pledge a Good Idea?” Financial Edge. 12 Aug. 2010. http://financialedge.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0810/Is-The-Giving-Pledge-A-Good-Idea.aspx

Paulette Maehara. “The Gates-Buffet Billionaire Challenge.” 17 June 2010. http://paulettespov.blogspot.com/2010/06/gates-buffett-challenge-billionaire.html

Elisa Birnbaum. “I Pledge: Making the most by giving it away.” 23 Aug. 2010. http://www.charityvillage.com/cv/archive/acov/acov10/acov1026.asp

“Gates, Buffet to wine and dine China’s super rich.” The Globe and Mail. 8 Sept. 2010. Print.

Luisa Kroll, Matthew Miller. 10 Mar. 2010. “The World’s Billionaires.”http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/10/worlds-richest-people-slim-gates-buffett-billionaires-2010_land.html

Michelle Nichols. “US Billionaires Pledge Fortunes to Charity.” Reuters. 4 Aug. 2010. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6733F520100804?pageNumber=2

  

Sources