CEO of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation urges billionaires to donate more and promptly

In his annual letter released on Thursday, the CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Mark Suzman, urges billionaires to donate more of their wealth to tackle inequality promptly. Suzman highlights the inspiring philanthropy of Chuck Feeney, a billionaire whose actions influenced Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Melinda French-Gates. Feeney, who passed away in October, amassed his wealth through duty-free stores and generously gave away $8 billion throughout his lifetime, often without seeking recognition.

“He showed us all how the actions of one generous person can set the wheels in motion for generations of progress,” Suzman wrote of Feeney.

The message is familiar from the Gates Foundation, which is one of the world’s largest global health funders. The foundation recently announced it will spend $8.6 billion in 2024, its largest budget to date, to help end poverty, fight treatable diseases and end hunger. According to experts, the cause of the recession is the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the high level of debt in many low- and middle-income countries.

“We’re doing exactly what my call to action is,” Suzman said in an interview with The Associated Press. “If there is an opportunity to expand our giving in a time of great need, we should model what that looks like.”

The foundation’s appeal is based on the Giving Pledge, which the Gateses and Buffett launched in 2010 as a commitment by billionaires to donate the majority of their wealth. Donors can donate while they are alive or dead and for any purpose.

Suzman noted that Feeney joined the pledge in 2011, adding, “I know very few people are willing or able to give away all of their wealth. But there’s a lot of ground between the generosity of Feeney’s success story and the giving of the ultra-wealthy today — and so many opportunities to make a difference.”

At least one pledger, billionaire investor Leon Cooperman, would like the pledge to go further. In an interview in December, Cooperman told Ari Melber, MSNBC’s chief legal correspondent, that “The Giving Pledge is a remarkable idea, it makes sense, but it doesn’t do enough.”

The foundation and Suzman tend toward optimism, pointing to research and programs they’ve helped develop, such as low-cost interventions that could reduce maternal and infant mortality and a global agricultural information system that would serve the world’s poorest farmers.

The Gates Foundation itself plans to increase its annual budget to $9 billion next year and then keep it at that level. The foundation’s board approved this year’s budget, but asked the foundation to consider how it will sustainably fund when the budget stops growing, Suzman said.

“They’re pushing us to say, ‘Would you possibly sunset or change some programs, and what does it look like to keep more powder dry against the odds?'” he said.

The Associated Press receives financial support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for reporting in Africa.

Groups aligned with the effective altruism movement, such as Longview Philanthropy, also regularly require even the poor to donate 10% to charity. In September, they published a report on what could be achieved if the top 1% of earners gave away 10% of their income.

“There’s a lot of talk about it as a responsibility and maybe anger that donors aren’t giving more, donors aren’t giving more effectively,” philanthropist Cari Tuna, president of funder Open Philanthropy and wife of the Facebook founder. Asana’s current CEO Dustin Moskovitz said about the report in an online panel.

“But what seems most effective, at least in my one-on-one conversations, is really leading to the opportunity and sharing the excitement we feel and why it’s so rewarding for us,” he said.

Suzman said he personally supports requiring US charitable foundations to give more than the currently mandated 5 percent of their endowment. The Gates Foundation donates closer to 10 percent of its endowment each year, Suzman said.

The task of billionaires is complicated by the fact that many keep getting richer. A report by Oxfam International, released at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland this month, found that the fortunes of the world’s five richest men have doubled since 2020 and that the increasing concentration of wealth could produce the first trillionaire in the following year. decade.

Additionally, a growing portion of philanthropic dollars in the U.S. are going into donor advised funds (DAFs), which allow donors to seek an immediate tax benefit. However, there is no time limit on when the DAF funds must be used for charity.

Chuck Collins, director of the Institute for Policy Studies, which has studied billionaire giving, said giving to intermediaries like DAFs is one way the wealthiest donors keep control of charitable trusts instead of giving money to nonprofits.

“These are our tax dollars at work, and donors receive significant tax deductions during the year they give,” Collins said. “So we should know how these funds will be used and whether they will be deployed in time.”