New Report “Giving Pledge at 15” by the Charity Reform Initiative of the Institute for Policy Studies Highlights How Wealth is Growing Alarmingly Faster Than It’s Given Away — and Warns of Supercharged Dynastic Philanthropy

On July 30, the Charity Reform Initiative of the Institute for Policy Studies released a timely new report, “The Giving Pledge at 15,” which examines how the Giving Pledge has influenced philanthropic giving, and how the ever-higher concentration of wealth in the U.S. continues to ensure that a small number of ultra-rich individuals hold an outsize influence on our civil society. The 15th anniversary of the announcement of the Giving Pledge is August 4, 2025.

The Giving Pledge is an initiative co-founded by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to boost giving by America’s billionaires. Members of the Giving Pledge promise to give at least half of their wealth to charity, either while living or upon their death. To date, 256 individuals, couples, or families have signed the Giving Pledge. This includes 194 signers from the U.S. and 62 signers from other countries. 57 U.S. individuals, couples, or families signed the Pledge in 2010, the year it was founded. At the time, they made up around 14 percent of the 404 recorded U.S. billionaires.

“Now that the Giving Pledge itself is old enough for a driver’s permit, the public can draw clear conclusions from the overwhelming proof in our report about how the voluntary commitment has fallen short, and about the dubious charitable giving practices favored by some of its signatories,” said Bella DeVaan, report co-author and associate director of the Charity Reform Initiative of the Institute for Policy Studies. “The core logic upholding American philanthropy is that our wealthiest give back in exchange for their great success. Now that the newly passed federal budget bill has made massive tax giveaways to the rich permanent, we have to ensure transparency and accountability in charitable giving to protect our democracy. If ultra-wealthy donors like the Giving Pledgers aren’t timely in fulfilling their promises to give away more of their wealth, we must enact measures to ensure more donations actually reach working charities, and discourage other ultra-rich Americans from exploiting the philanthropic system to hoard wealth and over-exert influence on the taxpayer’s dime.”  

Across nearly every example, report co-authors Chuck Collins, Bella DeVaan, Helen Flannery, and Dan Petegorsky conclude that the Giving Pledge is “unfulfilled, unfulfillable, and not our ticket to a fairer, better future.” 

Key findings include:

• 32 of the original U.S. Giving Pledgers are still billionaires, and they have collectively gotten 283 percent wealthier since they signed. Those who still have more than a billion dollars are worth a combined $908 billion, for an average of $28 billion per family. 
• 57 U.S. individuals, couples, or families signed the Pledge in 2010, the year it was founded. At the time, they made up around 14 percent of the U.S.’ 404 recorded billionaires.
• Only one couple among the original Pledgers has fulfilled their commitment: Laura and John Arnold. The Arnolds have given away an estimated $4.76 billion, mostly to their foundation, and have $2.93 billion remaining.
• The original 2010 Pledgers have given an estimated $206 billion to charity to date. Of that amount, 80 percent of original Giving Pledgers’ charitable gifts, an estimated $164 billion, has gone to private foundations, garnering tax reductions immediately, before those donations reach working charities. Another estimated $5 billion likely went to donor-advised funds.
• In 2023, the 44 private foundations established by the living original Pledgers held a total $120 billion in assets, and paid out at a median 9.2 percent.
• Only 8 of the 22 deceased Pledgers fulfilled their pledges, giving away 50 percent or more of their wealth while they were living or through their estates. These 22 people, including 14 of the original 2010 signers, were worth a combined $43.4 billion when they died.
• Only one of the 22 deceased Pledgers — Chuck Feeney — gave his entire $8 billion fortune away before he died.
• If all of the living 2010 Pledgers who are still billionaires fulfilled their pledges today, they would direct an additional $367 billion to charity. This is just shy of the $392 billion given to charity all by individuals in the U.S. in 2024.
• 110 of the U.S. Giving Pledge signers are still billionaires today, and they have a combined wealth of $1.7 trillion. Together, they account for almost 13 percent of the 876 billionaires in the U.S. The overall percentage of billionaires taking the Pledge hasn’t increased since 2010.
• If those Pledgers then took charitable deductions for their gifts, the U.S. Treasury could lose as much as $272 billion in reduced income, estate, and capital gains taxes. This would reduce funding for vital programs already threatened by drastic reductions in federal support.
• 15 of the original Pledgers have seen their wealth increase by more than 200 percent since 2010. One Pledger couple — Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan — have seen their wealth increase by more than 4,000 percent since 2010. (Their asset growth is 2,919 percent when adjusted for inflation.) 

“Based on these patterns, on the cusp of the Great Wealth Transfer to the next generation and a massive tax cut for the wealthiest Americans, our nation is about to see even more growth and concentration of philanthropic power in dynastic foundations,” warns Chuck Collins, co-author of the report, the director of the Charity Reform Initiative, and director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies. “We are facing the peril of billionaire charity dynasties wielding tremendous private power, the likes of which we’ve never seen — all subsidized by taxpayers.”

The report contains original analysis of the philanthropic landscape, along with individual profiles of bold, notable, and controversial givers like Elon Musk, MacKenzie Scott, Robert F. Smith, and other well-known signers of the Giving Pledge.

The report also highlights several reform measures that could ensure more money ends up in the hands of actual charities:

• Enacting a “Feeney Giving Pledge” inspiring billionaires to stop being billionaires in their lifetime, in the spirit of the late Chuck Feeney, who distributed over $8 billion over two decades.
• Increasing the flow of money from private foundations and DAFs to operating charities
• Ensuring greater transparency and public accountability
• Preventing abuses of the charitable system
• Protecting the fairness and integrity of the tax system
• And, most importantly, to address the Giving Pledge’s core problem: taxing wealth at a fair rate to prevent these fortunes from accumulating in the first place

Full report: https://ips-dc.org/report-giving-pledge-at-15 

Press contacts: 

Olivia Alperstein, olivia@ips-dc.org 

Bella DeVaan, bella@ips-dc.org

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About the Charity Reform Initiative of the Institute for Policy Studies

The IPS Charity Reform Initiative aims to overhaul the rules governing philanthropy to boost the flow of funds to working charities, protect democratic institutions, and strengthen the entire independent nonprofit sector. The Initiative regularly publishes groundbreaking, accessible, nonpartisan research and commentary regarding existing laws governing charitable giving and necessary transformations to benefit our common good. Their Charity Data Lab provides vital and comprehensive analyses of a large set of publicly-available tax information for all types of charitable organizations, including private foundations, community foundations, donor-advised fund sponsors, and working charities.