Thousands of rich and super-rich people are philantropist. In the U.S. this is more widely spread because of the tax system and less social wellfare by the government . Many of these philantropists have created their own foundation, concerning challenges at their heart because of personal experiences.

In first line we find there Bill Gates who with his wife Melinda established already 20 years ago the BMGF in Seattle. This foundation is centered around the challenge  5 „health“ (in the US no. 4 „education“ too). With 40 trillions $ worlds greatest foundation, bigger than the Harvard University.

Recently Jeff Bezos (Amazon), with his fortune in the front group of the richest, has asked by Twitter for ideas to change the world.

Giving Pledge to change the world

The Giving Pledge is a commitment by the world’s wealthiest individuals and families to dedicate the majority of their wealth to giving back. Bill Gates has started this campaign together with his friend Warren Buffet in 2010.

Actually there are pledges of 170 rich people. Out of the first 10 of the Forbes-List of the wealthiest we find 4: Gates, Buffet, Lawrence Ellison (Oracle), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook). Furthermore in the pledge-list: Michael Bloomberg, George Lucas, Sheryl Sandberg, Carl Icahn, Elon Musk, David Rockefeller, Ted Turner as the most known people. That group consitutes more then 10 % of the american super-rich people. And we not forget Richard Branson (Virgin), born in UK.

Can all this be only facade? Already at my school time i asked me: is praying to god a facade and only egoistic, to come in heaven? No outsider can asses this. But we can see with Bill Gates and Richard Branson that they work more and more only for their foundation goal. And naturally they mark their foundation with their entrepreneural energy. That is no mistake. It can be that they take other decisions or follow other priorities than you or me would follow.

Here an extract out of the pledge-letter of Mark Zuckerberg (November 9, 2015)

„We salute the Giving Pledge movement, and are proud to be part of its declaration that those who have been fortunate should give back at least half of their wealth during their lifetimes. The needs of our world are great. We believe passionately that people should not wait to give back. Our giving is just starting and we commit to being active learners, listeners and participants for years to come. We’ll devote our resources as well as our personal time and energy. We will spend our lives working to make sure future generations have the greatest opportunities possible.“