Billionaires giving it all away: How the Giving Pledge works (and doesn’t work)

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The intent is noble; the impact is hard to measure.

© Tasneem H/peopleimages.com, Viorel Sima/stock.adobe.com; Photo illustration Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

In the first 50 years of his life, Charles Feeney went from being the child of a nurse and an insurance underwriter who struggled to support three children to an entrepreneur worth an estimated $8 billion. Over the next four decades, Feeney gave away almost all of his money to charities, guided by a philosophy he called “giving while living.” His example inspired the Giving Pledge, a 2010 initiative started by Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Melinda French Gates.

The Giving Pledge is a voluntary commitment by (mostly) billionaires to give away more than half of their wealth during their lifetimes or when they die. It’s often described as a noble idea, but how exactly does this philanthropic effort work? Who has signed on for it? And is it, as Feeney described, an “appropriate use of wealth” to achieve “meaningful efforts to improve the human condition”?

The pledge asks ultra-high-wealth individuals to publicly commit to giving away more than half of their fortunes during their lifetimes or at their deaths. Those who sign the pledge are asked to write a letter explaining their commitment.

Charles Feeney gave away most of his fortune anonymously, but the Giving Pledge—with its Gates and Buffett affiliations—has been a very public enterprise from its inception. The public relations aspect of the pledge is intentional, as if to create a club that the über-wealthy would want and should want to belong to.

But even the Giving Pledge organization understands that there’s a difference between a public commitment and a binding document, noting on its website that “the pledge is a moral commitment to give, not a legal contract.”

Because the pledge isn’t legally binding, donations can be made to trusts or foundations, as well as through direct donations.

The Giving Pledge includes some of the world’s most prominent billionaires, alongside hundreds of far less familiar figures. Charles Feeney, for example, was largely unknown to the public even after records revealed the scale of his giving. The roster on the organization’s website contains more than 250 pledges.

Here are some notable names along with brief excerpts from their pledge letters:

Criticism of the Giving Pledge tends to focus less on its intent than on its limits. As of 2025, there were more than 3,000 billionaires worldwide, according to Forbes estimates, an inequality some critics argue cannot be meaningfully addressed by a voluntary, nonbinding pledge signed by less than 9% of them.

At its founding in 2010, Gates conceded that measuring the impact was impossible, but didn’t necessarily see that as a bad thing, telling The New York Times: “We will never be able to measure how much the group gets people to do more giving or do it in a better way.”

And Ellison, who so reluctantly wrote his letter in 2010, noted that he didn’t need to sign a pledge to donate his wealth: “I have already given hundreds of millions of dollars to medical research and education, and I will give billions more over time.”

Another criticism of the pledge is the influence that charities, trusts, and foundations controlled by billionaires can exert on public policy. Critics worry that philanthropy on this scale can shape agendas in ways that would otherwise be set through democratic processes.

To mark the Giving Pledge’s 15th anniversary in 2025, the Institute for Policy Studies examined the impact of the pledge. Among its findings, the report questioned whether the Gates Foundation, which plans to spend down its assets by 2045, could meet that goal given continued growth in its holdings. It also found that roughly 80% of identifiable Giving Pledge donations from the original 2010 signers flowed into private foundations. Channeling donations through private foundations can delay the distribution of funds to charities even as donors are able to claim tax benefits immediately. The institute called for greater scrutiny of pledged giving and urged an approach more closely aligned with Charles Feeney’s practice of giving away wealth rapidly and directly.

Feeney’s commitment to “giving while living” was unusually literal. By the time he died in 2023, he had given away virtually all of his fortune and lived quietly and modestly, retaining only a fraction of the wealth he once controlled.

When Feeney received the Forbes Lifetime Achievement for Philanthropy Award in 2014, Buffett said: “Chuck has set an example. It’s a real honor to talk about a fellow who is my hero and Bill Gates’ hero. He should be everybody’s hero.”