Microsoft cofounder, Bill Gates has been open about his decision not to leave his $78bn fortune to his three children. They will reportedly inherit just a small slice, about $10m each. “I definitely think leaving kids massive amounts of money is not a favour to them,” he said in a Reddit AMA in February. He founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 1994, and it currently has more than $36bn in assets. Gates also teamed up with long-time friend Warren Buffett to start a campaign called “The Giving Pledge,” which encourages other billionaires to donate at least half of their fortune to charity.
AOL cofounder, Steve Case helped millions of Americans get online, and now he’s donating much of his wealth to developing other technologies. He founded the Case Foundation in 1997, which focuses on using technology to make philanthropy more effective. He also started an investment firm called Revolution, which invests in start-ups outside of Silicon Valley, and signed the Giving Pledge. “We share the view that those to whom much is given, much is expected. We realize we have been given a unique platform and opportunity, and we are committed to doing the best we can with it,” he and wife Jean wrote. “We do not believe our assets are ‘ours’ but rather we try to be the responsible stewards of these resources.”
Salesforce CEO, Marc Benioff recently launched a campaign called SF Gives, which challenged tech companies to raise $10m for San Francisco-based non-profit programs in just 60 days. He’s encouraged other corporations to follow his 1/1/1 model, which says that a company should donate 1 per cent of its equity, 1 per cent of its employees’ time, and 1 per cent of its resources to philanthropic efforts. He and wife Lynne have also personally given a total of $200m to the children’s hospital at UCSF.
Together with wife Joan, Qualcomm founder, Irwin Jacobs has given away some $500m of his fortune to charitable causes that include the Cornell Tech Roosevelt Island campus, MIT fellowships, and the San Diego Symphony. He’s also signed the Giving Pledge, promising to give away at least half of the billions he made with the electronics firm he founded. Though his son, Paul, now serves as CEO of Qualcomm, his 1.5 million shares are no comparison to his father’s 26 million shares.
eBay founder, Pierre Omidyar and wife Pam are some of the most generous people in tech, having given away more than $1bn of the vast fortune they made when eBay went public in 1998. They signed the Giving Pledge in 2010. “In 2001, I publicly stated that we intend to give away the vast majority of our wealth during our lifetime,” the couple said in their pledge letter. “Our view is fairly simple. We have more money than our family will ever need. There’s no need to hold onto it when it can be put to use today, to help solve some of the world’s most intractable problems.” They’ve also donated eBay shares to the Omidyar Network, their philanthropic investment firm, and are the single biggest private donors in the fight against human trafficking.
Intel cofounder, Gordon Moore has given away more than $1bn to charitable causes, donating about half of his wealth to create the Moore Foundation in 2001. The foundation, which focuses on issues of environmental conservation, health measures, and the San Francisco community, currently has more than $5bn in assets. He and wife Betty signed Gates’ Giving Pledge in 2012. “We are pleased to be a part of the Giving Pledge not only because we are able to commit these funds, but because we believe they can lead to real learning and measurable change,” they said.
Tesla CEO, Elon Musk may have five young boys from his first marriage — one set of twins and one set of triplets — but he’s already donated much of his fortune to renewable energy, science and engineering education, and paediatric health. He signed the Giving Pledge in 2012, committing to donate the majority of his wealth to charitable causes. He receives only $1 a year for his work with Tesla.
Google CEO, Larry Page, on the other hand, has a somewhat unique idea for what he would like to happen to his wealth. In March, he told Charlie Rose that instead of giving his billions to his two children, he would rather give it to entrepreneurs like Elon Musk, who are coming up with big ideas to change the world. “[Musk] wants to go to Mars. That’s a worthy goal,” he said. “We have a lot of employees at Google who’ve become pretty wealthy. You’re working because you want to change the world and make it better; if the company you work for is worthy of your time, why not your money as well? We just don’t think about that. I’d like for us to help out more than we are.”
No comments:
Post a Comment