美17位富豪加入"捐贈誓言"
近日，包括Facebook兩位創始人在內的17位美國億萬富豪宣佈將自己半數的資產捐給巴菲特和蓋茨發起的慈善活動。至此，已有57位億萬富豪加入這個名爲“捐贈誓言”的慈善活動。今年6月，美國鉅富比爾•蓋茨和沃倫•巴菲特共同倡議發起“捐贈誓言”活動，號召富豪們在有生之年或死後將自己一半的財富捐給慈善機構，並向公衆表明他們的決心。該倡議並不接受任何資金，而是讓更多人做出道義上的承諾。
巴菲特早在2006年就承諾將自己財產的99％捐給比爾及梅林達•蓋茨基金會，而蓋茨夫婦捐給該基金會的資產已超過280億美元。今年9月，蓋茨和巴菲特來到北京同中國的億萬富翁共進晚餐，以宣傳慈善關愛文化，兩人還計劃於明年3月份訪問印度。
Another 17 US billionaires, including Facebook co-founders Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz, have pledged to give away at least half their fortunes in a philanthropic campaign led by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.
A total of 57 billionaires now have joined The Giving Pledge, which was launched by Microsoft founder Gates and investor Buffett in June. The campaign announced the new pledges in a statement late on Wednesday.
Gates, his wife Melinda, and Buffett have asked US billionaires to give away at least half their wealth during their lifetime or after their death, and to publicly state their intention with a letter explaining their decision.
The Giving Pledge does not accept money or tell people how to donate their money but asks billionaires to make a moral commitment to give their fortunes to charity.
"People wait until late in their career to give back. But why wait when there is so much to be done?" Zuckerberg, who gave $100 million in September to the beleaguered public schools of Newark, New Jersey, said in a statement.
"With a generation of younger folks who have thrived on the success of their companies, there is a big opportunity for many of us to give back earlier in our lifetime and see the impact of our philanthropic efforts," he said.
In addition to Zuckerberg and Moskovitz, the world's youngest billionaires, pledges were made by AOL co-founder Steve Case, financier Carl Icahn and Michael Milken, a former Wall Street executive who went to prison in the early 1990s for securities violations.
Morningstar Chief Executive Joe Mansueto, businessman Nicolas Berggruen and private investor Ted Forstmann also are among the new billionaires to take the pledges.
"In just a few short months we've made good progress," said Buffett, who made his fortune with insurance and investment company Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
"The Giving Pledge has re-energized people thinking about philanthropy and doing things in philanthropy and I look forward to many more conversations with families who are truly fortunate and whose generosity can and will change lives," he said.
Along with speaking to about a quarter of the wealthiest people in the United States about The Giving Pledge, Gates and Buffett hosted a dinner with Chinese billionaires in Beijing in September in a bid to promote a culture of philanthropy in China. The pair plan to visit India in March.
Forbes magazine said the United States is home to more than 400 billionaires, the most of any country.
Individual Americans gave more than $227 billion in 2009, according to the Giving USA report by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, down just 0.4 percent from the previous year despite the U.S. recession.
Buffett pledged in 2006 to give away 99 percent of his wealth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and family charities. Bill and Melinda Gates have so far donated more than $28 billion of their fortune to their foundation.
