BooHoo…it’s “hard” for billionaires to give away money?!?!
Yup, I’m paraphrasing an actual headline folks…
A piece in Fortune last month: “Less than 10 billionaires have actually kept their promise to give away their fortune—and a philanthropy CEO says Elon Musk is right about why: ‘It’s hard’”
Deep breath needed on my part…Where to start?
Let’s start at the beginning of this story. In 2010, Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffett launched an initiative called The Giving Pledge, which encourages the world’s wealthiest individuals to commit at least half of their fortune to philanthropic causes. It is a voluntary, public promise meant to address global issues. More than 250 of the world’s wealthiest individuals and families have signed it.
Let’s just take one happy moment to imagine if EVEN HALF of these billionaires were fulfilling their pledge. That would mean so much money flowing to a sector that desperately needs it. A sector whose mission is to help the people who need that help the most and to make the world a better place.
Sigh. Okay, back to reality…
Fifteen years later, only ten (10!) individuals and families are actually doing it. Said another way, 240 billionaires DID NOT fulfill the pledge they made. To be fair, the pledge allows them to give the money away posthumously, but still.
What???
Living in the United States today, you’re probably not surprised. The headlines we read are about how the wealthiest people are becoming even wealthier and lining their pockets without apology and without giving anything to people and causes that actually need it.
Globally, billionaire wealth has grown 81% since 2020, reaching a whopping $18.3 trillion, even as one in four people worldwide regularly don’t have enough to eat. This disparity surged in 2025, with billionaires’ wealth growing at three times the previous five-year average, while poverty rates in US cities reached their highest levels in over a decade.
There is no denying that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. And while this is happening, you have the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, actually saying, “It’s very difficult to give away money for the reality of goodness,” and that his “businesses are philanthropies.”
Does anyone else feel like they’ve gone down the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland, and nothing is as it should be?
First, let’s talk about what is actually hard. Not being able to give your family enough to eat is hard. Not being able to afford gas to get to work is hard. Having family members disappeared by ICE is hard. Walking around this country day after day, while more of your basic human rights are put up for public scrutiny and then political and/or judicial powers diminish or even erase those rights, leaving you more and more unprotected. That is hard.
Giving away money? That is not hard compared to the brief, incomplete list above of what is actually hard.
Now, I’m not saying it is easy and requires no effort, but to stretch so far as to say, “It’s hard,” just does not pass the sniff test. Tell that to MacKenzie Scott, giving away millions of dollars at a time, with no restrictions, little fanfare, and deep impact.
There are also many, many tools to help people give away money. Here’s just one. Check out every.org, run by the brilliant Allison Fine. She makes it a hell of a lot easier to give away all kinds of assets to benefit non-profits for free!
I won’t attack the philanthropy CEO who agreed with Musk that this is “hard,” because I don’t want to give this misguided view more airtime. Allow me to say, I politely – and vehemently – disagree.
The real moral of this story is two-fold. First, let’s not let wealthy folks off the hook. Millionaires and billionaires SHOULD be giving away more money, because it’s not hard. Second, and as important, we cannot wait for the wealthiest to save us.
In fact, did you know that consistently, people with the lowest incomes give a higher percentage of their money to charity, compared to their wealthier peers? It proves that although the size of a gift from a regular person vs. a millionaire or billionaire might be smaller, it is often given more consistently and over a longer period of time, making it a much more sustainable base for nonprofits and charities.
Every one of us needs to do what we can, now. And I am happy to report that it’s happening.
You may not read it in Fortune magazine, but there are really good people doing really good things all across this country every day to redistribute power and wealth in ways that we can all be proud of.
Recently, I went to Enid, Oklahoma. Population: Roughly 50,000. I had never been to Oklahoma before, and the people were incredible. I was there to deliver a keynote speech at a newly created nonprofit summit.
Here’s how it happened.
Last year, Park Avenue Thrift (PAT), a local nonprofit in Enid that has given away $5.3 million to their community, was given the ONE Award by The Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits. The award came with $10,000, and PAT decided to use that money to invest back into the nonprofit community of Enid.
They created a nonprofit summit called Impact Enid. The goal was to inspire and equip these leaders to go back and do even more in their communities. These folks are doing amazing work, day in and day out – feeding people when they are hungry, holding their hands when something bad happens, and strategizing when people feel alone and without hope. It was impossible for me not to leave feeling more inspired and equipped from hearing their stories and witnessing their work.
Ultimately, I agree with activist and computer engineer, Wael Ghonim: “The power of the people is greater than the people in power.” He should know; he received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in 2010 on behalf of the people in Egypt for standing up to their repressive regime.
This applies to giving as well. Don’t ignore the so-called small gifts; celebrate them.
My goal today is to tell a different story about people’s generosity and about the hard-working people and organizations who try every day to make it better. Regardless of the amount you can contribute to making things better, please do it. Be any part of the solution, not part of the problem.
I would argue that in the scheme of things, it’s not hard.
