Warren Buffett, Bill and Melinda Gates, in an interview on May 5, 2015CNBCA version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.In June 2010, Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates and Warren Buffett started what could be described as the world’s most ambitious fundraising drive. After promising to give away the vast majority of their wealth, the trio asked their ultra-wealthy peers to pledge at least half of their assets to charity during their lifetimes or in their estates.In two months, the Giving Pledge garnered signatures from 40 of America’s richest families and individuals to sign up. That first batch of pledgers, including Michael Bloomberg and David Rockefeller, was announced 15 years ago this week.In the years since, the Giving Pledge has lost steam when it comes to enrollment. By the end of 2010, 57 signatories representing an estimated 14% of America’s billionaires had made the nonbinding commitment, according to a recent report by the Institute for Policy Studies. Currently, the pledge has commitments from 256 individuals, couples and families, including 110 American billionaires, per the progressive think tank. This group makes up 12% of the U.S. billionaire population as estimated by Forbes.The annual number of sign-ups has also flagged since that first year. Even in 2020 when the pandemic spurred wealthy donors to give more, the Giving Pledge only earned 12 new signatories. This past May, the pledge welcomed 11 new members, a marked improvement over 2024’s record low of four.Meanwhile, over the past 10 years, the number of billionaires worldwide has increased by more than half to 2,891, according to UBS. Their wealth also doubled by more than half to an estimated $15.7 trillion, UBS said.”It’s disappointing in that you would hope more people would step up,” said Chuck Collins, program director at the IPS and great-grandson of the meatpacker Oscar Mayer.[embedded content]Collins, a co-author of the report, said the rapid increase in wealth may be partly to blame. This surge in wealth has also made it challenging for the pledgers to give away their money fast enough.”Some of this is fairly sudden, the wealth growth,” he said, “so you got to give people … a decade of slack, if you just land in the billionaire class to figure it out.”Whet …
