RANCHOS PALOS VERDES,ポルノ映画に California — Airbnb’s founders and more than a dozen other very rich people have just signed on with the Bill and Melinda Gates Giving Pledge, promising to give away most of their wealth to help solve the world's most pressing problems.
Gates and his wife Melinda announced the new signatories that include Airbnb founders Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharczyk and his wife Elizabeth as well as Salesforce founder Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne on Wednesday at the Code Conference. The Gates also managed to, for the first time, attract the wealthy from Saudi Arabia (HRH Prince Alwaleed bin Talal) and China (Gensheng Niu).
Run by former Microsoft CEO and co-founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates, the Gates Foundation is focused on world health issues like malaria, family planning (Melinda Gates' focus) and polio (Bill Gates' current focus). Gates said the foundation, which applies billions to these issues each year, is, ultimately, "all about innovation."
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Benioff and the Airbnb founders join, among others, Gates (naturally) and Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg who, in 2010, pledged to give away most of his multi-billion-dollar fortune in his lifetime.
The Giving Pledge now has 150 members who use their money to tackle big world issues, but do not pool their resources to do so, said Bill Gates.
Not among the members is current Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump. The billionaire has never pledged nor been approached by the Gates Foundation, according to Melinda Gates. Bill Gates noted that Trump is not known for his philanthropy. "He is known for other things," he said.
As for how the tech industry is doing philanthropy-wise, Bill Gates said, "I would like to see a lot more done. So we’re nowhere near the potential." On the other hand, Gates said the tech industry has been very generous.
If Gates' efforts is giving you a philanthropic urge, and you want to donate your hundreds, thousands or even millions, don't go applying the Giving Pledge. It is for billionaires (that's with a "b) only. When Walt Mossberg asked if he could join, Bill Gates joked, "You’re going to have to raise your [Code] ticket prices.”
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