Gates, Buffett Group Gains Giving Supporters

Vinod Khosla and his wife Neeru are among the latest crop of billionaires to sign The Giving Pledge started by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

Image: The Business Journals

Billionaires from the youngest in the world like Mark Zuckerberg, to those who are getting on in years like octogenarian energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens, have done it.

Those who made their fortunes making movie magic happen, like George Lucas, and those who made their money by helping create the magic of the Internet, like Steve Case, have done it.

Today, 10 more of America’s wealthiest families have joined the Giving Pledge group, an effort launched by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to encourage billionaires to give away at least half their fortunes to philanthropic pursuits.

Both Gates and Buffett, America’s two richest men, have long been major philanthropists. Gates, along with wife Melinda, created the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which is involved in giving away their fortune to causes ranging from health care in the third world to education in inner cities. Buffett has pledged much of his fortune to the Gates Foundation as well.

In June 2010, Gates and Buffett launched the challenge to others at the very top of the economic heap to join the pledge. With the 10 announced today, the number of those who have signed on stands at 69.

Those most recent who signed include Joyce and Bill Cummings, Ray and Barbara Dalio, John Paul DeJoria, Phillip and Patricia Frost, Harold and Sue Ann Hamm, Vinod and Neeru Khosla, Rich and Nancy Kinder, Edward W. and Deedie Potter Rose, Lynn Schusterman, and Annette and Harold Simmons.

“I am delighted that so many wealthy Americans are taking a public pledge that supports philanthropy,” Buffett said. “The continued energy and passion for this project, and the many philanthropy conversations it has sparked with families from all walks of life, are inspiring.”

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