Etienne Eichenberger

The Giving Pledge: an agenda for philanthropy advisers

On 16 June, Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett (pictured) publicly invited US billionaires to pledge the majority of their wealth to charity. The Giving Pledge is a matter of a moral commitment to give; it will not involve pooling money or supporting a particular set of causes or organizations. The hope is that the movement will expand to other parts of the world. Analysts have already estimated that if the people on the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans all made the pledge, an additional US$600 billion could flow to the non-profit sector.