{"id":21119,"date":"2010-08-05T13:25:29","date_gmt":"2010-08-05T11:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=21119"},"modified":"2017-11-28T18:17:03","modified_gmt":"2017-11-28T15:17:03","slug":"forty-billionaires-give-away-half-of-wealth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2010\/08\/05\/forty-billionaires-give-away-half-of-wealth\/","title":{"rendered":"Forty Billionaires Give Away Half Of Wealth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Forty American billionaires have pledged to give at least half of their fortunes to charity as part of a campaign by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Microsoft founder Gates and investor Buffett, who are worth a combined $90bn (\u00a356.6bn), have persuaded 38 of their fellow billionaires to sign up.<\/p>\n

The friends and philanthropists started The Giving Pledge last month.<\/p>\n

Its aim is to persuade fellow billionaires to pledge the money to charity, either in their lifetime or after they die.<\/p>\n

Buffett said: “We’ve really just started, but already we’ve had a terrific response.<\/p>\n

“At its core, the Giving Pledge is about asking wealthy families to have important conversations about their wealth and how it will be used.”<\/p>\n

He added: “We’re delighted that so many people are doing just that – and that so many have decided to not only take this pledge but also to commit to sums far greater than the 50% minimum level.”<\/p>\n

Those who sign the pledge are also invited to publish a letter explaining their decision.<\/p>\n

Among the latest batch to have signed up is New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is worth $18bn (\u00a311.3bn).<\/p>\n

In his letter Bloomberg wrote: “Making a difference in people’s lives – and seeing it with your own eyes – is perhaps the most satisfying thing you’ll ever do. If you want to fully enjoy life – give.<\/p>\n

“And if you want to do something for your children and show how much you love them, the single best thing – by far – is to support organisations that will create a better world for them and their children.”<\/p>\n

Joining him is Star Wars Director George Lucas.<\/p>\n

Lucas wrote: “My pledge is to the process; as long as I have the resources at my disposal, I will seek to raise the bar for future generations of students of all ages.”<\/p>\n

Others on the list include entertainment executive Barry Diller ($1.2bn, \u00a3775m), Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison ($28bn, \u00a317.6bn), energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens ($1.1bn, \u00a3692m), media mogul Ted Turner ($4.8bn, \u00a33bn), banker David Rockefeller ($2.2bn, \u00a31.3bn) and investor Ronald Perelman ($11bn, \u00a36.9bn).<\/p>\n

They join Eli Broad, who made his money in property, venture capitalist John Doerr, media entrepreneur Gerry Lenfest and former Cisco Systems Chairman John Morgridge in supporting the effort.<\/p>\n

The US has 403 billionaires, the most of any country, and all together they have a combined fortune of $1.3 trillion.<\/p>\n

Mr Buffett himself pledged to give 99% of his wealth to good causes in 2006.<\/p>\n

Gates and Buffet will now wine and dine other billionaires in an attempt to persuade them to follow suit.<\/p>\n

The Sky<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forty American billionaires have pledged to give at least half of their fortunes to charity as part of a campaign by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Microsoft founder Gates and investor Buffett, who are worth a combined $90bn (\u00a356.6bn), have persuaded 38 of their fellow billionaires to sign up. The friends and philanthropists started The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":33840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[3355,3353,3354,3356],"class_list":["post-21119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey","tag-bill-gates","tag-billionaires","tag-forty-american-billionaires","tag-warren-buffett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}