Seventeen more U.S. billionaires have responded to Bill Gates and Warren Buffett’s challenge to donate at least half of their wealth to charity.
This latest batch of billionaires include Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz, co-founders of the popular social networking site Facebook.
“People wait until late in their career to give back. But why wait when there is so much to be done?” Zuckerberg said according to the Guardian. “With a generation of younger folks who have thrived on the success of their companies, there is a big opportunity for many of us to give back earlier in our lifetime and see the impact of our philanthropic efforts.”
Also among the 17 are AOL co-founder Steve Case, former Wall Street executive Michael Milken, financier Carl Icahn, private investor Ted Forstmann and businessman Nicolas Berggruen.
Gates and Buffett launched the Giving Pledge initiative in June 2010 as a challenge to the U.S.’s top 400 billionaires to give away part of their wealth to philanthropic causes during their lifetime or after death. The challenge includes issuing a public announcement of their intention and a letter detailing their intention, the Guardian notes.
As previously reported, the two billionaire philanthropists have also taken the challenge to China.
>> Gates, Buffett ‘Amazed’ by China’s Interest in Philanthropy
