You’d think someone who’s announced she’s giving away $17 billion to charity would be a hero. Instead, Mackenzie Bezos and others like her have come under fire for donating half their wealth to philanthropic causes.
The announcement makes Bezos one of 204 billionaires to commit to the Giving Pledge, a campaign created by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett in 2010 to encourage wealthy people to contribute a majority of their wealth to charitable efforts.
The Giving Pledge is simple but significant. Signatories agree that they will donate half their fortune during their lifetimes or in their will. It’s intended to encourage philanthropic action, rather than the often undefined and drifting legacies left behind by tycoons of the Gilded Age.
So far, the greatest gift to come out of Bezos’ recent commitment is the launch of a thousand thinkpieces recommending what she should do with her boundless resources. Others decry how her charitable giving will limit what she pays in taxes, as if the government was the one that helped build Amazon in its early days and not her.
It’s her money. That goes for the portion she will give away, too. She will decide her own philanthropic priorities. Rather than offer her suggestions she won’t take, let’s turn the tables: What is your giving pledge?
Each of us has the power to take up the “philanthropist” title for ourselves as we exist today — inherited billions not required. The trick to becoming a philanthropist is making a strategic commitment to give, not in having a certain capacity of wealth.
No matter the amount, smart philanthropy takes work. Too often we let the number of zeros on the checks someone writes cloud our vision of real philanthropy. Large gifts can certainly move the needle of change in a big way. They can also give philanthropy a bad name, such as with Mark Zuckerberg’s ill-conceived $100 million gift to the Newark, N.J., schools.
On the other hand, you surely see many examples of smaller dollars having a significant impact within your own community. That leads to the other underappreciated takeaway from the Giving Pledge discussion: There is a heck of a lot of money out there that people want to give away. Heads of charities who declare they can’t find the financial resources they need should ask if they are making their case effectively enough.
Bezos or Buffet likely won’t swoop in on a struggling small-town food bank. The food bank also doesn’t need a Buffett-sized gift to be effective. Instead, it needs passionate people on both sides of the giving equation. Organizations with a strong mission should not be shy about reaching out to donors of all giving levels. A thoughtful donor won’t give because he or she feels forced to. Donors give for the intrinsic joy in giving to a cause where he or she believes change is possible.
In my role at a national donor-advised fund, I work with people looking to give strategically every day. People from around the country use donor-advised funds with providers such as us as one way to more strategically deploy their resources and money.
They aren’t billionaires either. Our median account is in line with many other DAF providers at around $18,000. These donors can’t give as generously as the Gates family, but they know what they care about. They target the charitable resources they do have to solve problems they’ve prioritized.
Perhaps for you, giving to food banks lights you up. Maybe your interests lie in supporting veterans or ensuring your city has a thriving symphony. These are all extremely valuable in their own ways, and it takes a variety of donors engaging in unique ways to create a fully functional civil society. The trick to philanthropy isn’t the cause or even the vehicle through which you give. It’s giving thoughtfully.
You likely don’t have $18 billion ready to commit to charity. That’s ok. You probably have $18. Maybe you have $1,800 or even $18,000. Each one of those amounts matters to causes that do good work. Your giving alone may not launch a rocket to Mars or solve world hunger, but it might just launch a student to college or feed one person for a day.
These are worthy outcomes, and you are a worthy giver, at any level.
Peter Lipsett is vice president at DonorsTrust. He also leads DonorsTrust’s Novus Society, a network of donors under 40 committed to growing their philanthropic know-how.
