Have you ever heard of The Giving Pledge? A great many of the worlds Billionaires (around 240 of them) have.
The Giving Pledge
The Pledge is a separate but affiliated community operationally hosted by the Gates Foundation.
Their website describe The giving Pledge is A promise by the world’s wealthiest people (Individuals with $1Billion Nett Worth +) to give the majority of their wealth to charitable causes over the course of their lifetime or in their wills.
Founded by Warren Buffet, Melinda and Bill Gates, with Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk as notable people who have taken the pledge.
So what does The Pledge do
They say – that they offer space for for philanthropists to connect with one another and with changemakers on the front lines of the world’s most urgent issues.
Hosting meetings (or learning events) between pledgers and guidance on specific giving opportunities.
Pledgers pursue their philanthropy independently. The Giving Pledge isn’t an oversight organisation or a pooled fund. In fact The Pledge have nothing to do with the donations at all.
The Rub
In principal its a great mission and philanthropy in any form should be applauded. The limitations are that the spotlight will only be on the causes that the Gates Foundation care about. The worlds most important issues according to a select few.
There are many worthy charities out there and supporting any one of them is an convenient, easy way to feel like a person is doing their bit and giving back. But its big business with marketing budgets, well paid executives, operational costs that take away from the central cause.
The Alternative
I believe that most of the worlds problems can be solved with the right infrastructure; higher living standards, economic growth, security and health.
What if instead of giving to a convenient charity that is pointed out to you by one of your other rich mates, you decided to fund an infrastructure project instead.
I’ll give an example. The Housing crisis. The UK aren’t building enough new homes to house the growing population and the only people building houses are property developers. Property developers exist to make money or profit.
Injecting some billionaire philanthropy money into putting rooves over peoples heads would make a real difference. As shown when the Guinness family did it in the 1890’s.
If companies can build houses whilst maintaining a healthy margin, Imagine how many houses a philanthropist could build.
Conclusion
Giving is great, and charities need donations from wealthy people. But when you’re Super wealthy just giving to a charity doesn’t cut it IMO, not when you think of the potential impact that kind of money can have. Why not take a leaf out of the Victorians book and put some of that capital into infrastructure. Because countries don’t build themselves.
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