August 5, 2025 – Abby Schultz, Barron’s
Since signing the Giving Pledge in 2010, Houston billionaires John and Laura Arnold have given away nearly $5 billion to charitable causes.
According to the Charity Reform Initiative of the Institute for Policy Studies, a nonprofit that advocates for changes to the tax code to encourage more direct giving, the Arnolds are the only original, living signers to have fulfilled the pledge. That is, the Arnolds have given away more than half of their wealth during their lifetime—a core pledge principle.
A spokeswoman for Arnold Ventures, the couple’s philanthropic vehicle, didn’t return a request for comment.
The Giving Pledge was created by Bill Gates and his former wife, Melinda French Gates, and Warren Buffett in 2010 to encourage those with extreme wealth to part with at least half of it during their lives or via their estates after they die.
The Giving Pledge was founded with 40 members in 2010, expanding to nearly 60 that year. As of May, there were 255 signatories, including 191 from the U.S., according to the Giving Pledge.
In a new report, titled “The Giving Pledge at 15,” the Charity Reform Initiative of the Institute for Policy Studies makes a case for why the pledge is “unfulfilled, unfulfillable, and not our ticket to a fairer, better future.” Critics of the report, however, say its analysis distorts the giving of those who have signed the pledge.
Charity Reform Initiative’s key criticism is that the wealthy rely on private foundations and donor-advised funds, or DAFs, vehicles that provide philanthropists with tax breaks before any dollars reach charitable organizations. Philanthropists also use limited liability corporations, which have fewer tax advantages but give donors more flexibility in where to deploy dollars.
The group advocates for reform of the Giving Pledge alongside “meaningful policy change” that would move money out of foundations and DAFs more quickly and would increase transparency and accountability. To track pledger giving, the report’s researchers looked at Internal Revenue Service filings from foundations, sources such as a data base compiled by Altrata’s Wealth-X, Forbes rankings, the Chronicle of Philanthropy, and public media reports.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Giving Pledge—which doesn’t have a formal oversight body—said the pledge “has helped create new norms of generosity and grown into a connected and active global learning community.”
The Charity Reform Initiative report “raises important questions that aim to encourage greater giving,” but the spokesperson said its “reliance on incomplete data, and its exclusion of significant forms of charitable giving—such as gifts made to foundations and other intermediaries—paints a misleading picture of the impact and intent of Giving Pledge signatories and the spirit and intent of the Giving Pledge.”
The changes Charity Reform Initiative seeks include renaming the pledge in honor of the late Chuck Feeney—an original signer, who co-founded Duty Free Shoppers Group. Through Atlantic Philanthropies, Feeney’s private foundation, the philanthropist gave away his entire fortune of $8 billion over 22 years before he died in 2023.
A “Feeney Giving Pledge,” would “call for Pledgers to pay their fair share of taxes, give money away while alive, and empower organizations led by non-billionaires to solve the urgent problems of our day,” the report said.
The initiative praises the example of Gates’ recent promise to give away most of his wealth and to close his foundation—a total estimated at $200 billion—within 20 years. Also receiving praise is MacKenzie Scott, the former wife of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos who has given away more than $19 billion of an original $38 billion settlement she received through her divorce.
At the same time, the report calls out billionaires such as venture capitalist Marc Andreessen (who hasn’t signed the pledge) for blurring the boundary between his business goals and philanthropy, and Elon Musk (who signed it in 2012) for gifts that primarily offer him tax advantages and anonymity. Andreessen couldn’t be reached for comment; Musk didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The anonymity of Musk’s giving occurs because he channels foundation grants through DAFs, which, unlike private foundations, aren’t required to disclose grant recipients. Scott is a big user of DAFs too, according to the report, although she keeps a running, detailed list of her donations at Yield Giving, an LLC she set up to manage her philanthropy.
The crux of Charity Reform Initiative’s argument is that philanthropy in the U.S. is structured to provide the wealthy with generous tax benefits that don’t filter through to the individuals and causes in most need of their generosity.
According to the group’s estimates, about 80% of an estimated $206 billion gifted by the original group of pledgers went first to private foundations. Another $5 billion, the group estimates, probably went to DAFs.
But critics of the new report say many wealthy philanthropists use their foundations to make substantive charitable gifts. Though the default has been for wealthy individuals to set up foundations to exist in perpetuity, Bank of America has been facilitating more conversations among those who want to spend down their fortunes when they are alive, according to Dianne Chipps Bailey, national philanthropic strategy executive at Bank of America.
Also, a 2024 report from the Donor-Advised Fund Research Collaborative concluded 54% of DAFs granted at least half of their assets to nonprofits within three years. Foundations are required by law to distribute 5% of assets a year to charities, which can include gifts to DAFs.
One reason a lot of wealth doesn’t reach nonprofits in need isn’t about tax structures—it’s about donors who lack confidence in their ability to effectively give, Bailey says.
A 2023 biennial study from the bank and Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy found less than 5% of affluent Americans rate themselves as expert in charitable giving, Bailey says.
“This perception around a lack of confidence is a major barrier.” By contrast, the small percentage who do have a philanthropy budget, and monitor the impact of their giving, are more likely to perceive their gifts are having the intended impact and they give more, she says.
One way donors are overcoming their lack of confidence is by joining with other philanthropists in giving circles or donor collaboratives such as Women Moving Millions, a group of about 400 that commit to donating $1 million over 10 years to benefit women and girls.
Another issue for the Charity Reform Initiative? Of the original U.S. signers of the pledge, 32 who are still billionaires are 283% wealthier since they signed (or 166% wealthier if adjusted for inflation), the report said.
The authors argue that most billionaires are unlikely to sign a “Feeney Giving Pledge,” and they make a case for policy change that would ensure that dollars move more quickly out of tax-privileged vehicles to the nonprofits that need funding. They also argue that wealthy individuals should be taxed at “a fair rate to prevent these fortunes from accumulating in the first place.”
The Bridgespan Group, which works with wealthy donors and foundations, published research this past November on approaches to philanthropy taken by Giving Pledgers. It found that about half of the 25 “most generous givers” in the U.S. have already donated more than 20% of their wealth, and that the most generous are choosing to use a mix of vehicles to get funding to nonprofits.
Write to Abby Schultz at [email protected]
Read the original published article here.