(Newswire.net— July 30, 2020) — The super-rich Americans who promised to donate most of their property to charity, instead increased their wealth by “storing” money in family funds, Reuters cited a new report.
More than three-quarters of the multibillionaires who joined “The Giving Pledge” campaign and promised to donate most of their money have significantly increased their wealth in the last ten years, the Institute for Policy Studies announced.
The authors of the study called on the rich to follow the example of Mackenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and donate their money directly to humanitarian organizations instead of keeping it in family funds.
“The signatories promised to give half of their wealth in 2010, and instead their assets doubled,” said Chuck Collins, co-author of the Guilded Givings report at the Institute for Policy Studies.
“By donating $ 1.7 billion directly to 116 charities, Mackenzie Scott is an example of what multibillionaires and Giving Pledge signatories should do with their wealth,” he pointed out.
“The Giving Pledge” campaign did not respond to the request for a comment.
It was launched in 2010 by the American tycoon Warren Buffett, together with the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates and his wife Melinda, in order to encourage the super-rich to donate most of their wealth for philanthropic purposes.
Eleven of the 62 American billionaires analyzed in the study have less money than in 2010, either because of their donations or because of changes that occurred in the market causing their assets to shift or diminish in value. However, the remaining 51 “significantly increased” their wealth.
This can be partly explained by the fact that they earn money faster than they can give it away, according to the institute.
Chuck Collins also warns that many of the super-rich prefer to pay money into private funds in order to pay less tax, which results in “storage” of money, instead of it being directly given to charity.
The institute called on Congress to do something, including abolishing tax breaks for such organizations and forcing them to donate more.
The top one percent of the ultra-rich could hold 24 percent of global wealth in their hands by 2050, the United Nations recently estimated, warning of growing social inequality.
Most people want the rich to contribute more to the eradication of poverty, according to an international survey by the activist group Global Citizen and the Dutch agency Glocalities conducted earlier this year.