Forbes just published their annual list of the “Richest People in America.”What some may not know is that on that roster are 28 American billionaires, including Warren Buffet, Bill and Melinda Gates and Michael Bloomberg, who have added their name to The Giving Pledge. As founders and fundraisers for two leading international organizations, we were thrilled to hear that these billionaires were committing to give away a majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes.
But, as business leaders, we had an important follow up question for them: what’s your timeline?
So many of us in the nonprofit space recognize and personally know many of those who’ve made the pledge, and if we didn’t know them, we now want to. One of those names, Jeff Skoll and the Skoll Foundation, was an early investor in both Kiva and Room to Read, and due in large part to their support, our respective organizations have managed to scale faster than we could have ever predicted.