Billionaires Challenge Each Other to Give Big

Posted by Susan Turnbull June 22, 2010 in Blog

Read this fascinating story in last week’s Fortune about the secretive gathering of billionaires last year, meeting to talk about the difference they could make if they all agreed to give away half their net worth – during and/or after life, a challenge spear-headed by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates. The estimated impact would be $600 billion flowing out of private hands into philanthropy. This is positive leverage on a huge scale and seems so thoroughly American:  they are thinking big, using their entrepreneurial instincts and suggesting that its good for members of succeeding generations to have to invent themselves, too.