Giving Fortunes Away

Around five years ago, Warren Buffet, Bill and Melinda Gates started a campaign named The Giving Pledgeto encourage billionaires to donate some of their wealth to charities. Shortly after this campaign, a woman named Lily Fardell had her home auctioned and it was sold for more than $3 million. She announced that the money would be spent on homeless children and their families. Many people donate money to touch the lives of people who are in need.

 

Bill Gates: Together with his wife he started a foundation named the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Believing that every life has equal value, Bill Gates has already given $28 billion of his fortune away to be spent on fighting deadly diseases around the world, and funding renewable energy and education. 

 

Sam Simon: When he was diagnosed with cancer in 2012, he decided to donate his fortune, which is worth $100 million, when he died. After his death at the age of 59, his fortune found its way to organizations that provide service dogs for veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and the hearing impaired. Some of his fortune is also being used by an institution that fights for animal rights. 

 

Tim Cook: The CEO of Apple also declared that he would donate his $800 million fortune after his death. However, he didn’t wait until the end of his life. In 2012, he donated $50 million of his fortune to Stanford hospital. He also donated $50 million to Project Red to be spent on the fight against AIDS.   

 

Chuck Feeney: He is a man who devoted his life for a better humanity and inspired many others. Unlike other people on the list, he has been donating money for more than 30 years and will keep on until he dies. He is an Irish-American businessman who has done a lot for Ireland. He ended the juvenile death penalty and reduced the number of children without health insurance in the USA. He helped Vietnam develop a system which delivers health care equally throughout the country. He is a philanthropist admired by many people. 

 

Thanks to Gates couple and Warren Buffet, if they hadn’t started this campaign and spread the word, less people would have heard about it.