A group of U.S. billionaires have pledged to give at least half of their wealth to charity as part of a groundbreaking initiative organized by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
The Giving Pledge was a brainchild of Gates and Buffett, both of whom have routinely made the richest people’s list. The pair’s initiative began in June.
“We’ve really just started, but already we’ve had a terrific response,” Buffett said, as quoted by Agence France-Presse.
In a statement released Aug. 4, the initiative said the pledge “is a moral commitment to give, not a legal contract.”
Aside from Gates and Buffett, those who signed on to the initiative include CNN founder Ted Turner, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, and Hollywood director George Lucas, news agencies report.
The Giving Pledge targets to secure pledges from approximately 400 U.S. billionaires. The Forbes magazine estimates that some USD600 billion could be collected if the entire group would join the project and surrender half of their wealth to charity.
