I recently wrote about the vast wealth that is now in the hands of technology billionaires, in particular Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, and how they should consider dividing their companies to support our democracy. Here, I want to delve into another facet of what can be considered personal responsibility, namely, philanthropy.
First, among this cohort, it is widely recognized that Bill Gates is light years ahead of others, not only in terms of his own donations and with the Gates Foundation, but also in terms of organizing his fellow billionaires to join the Giving Pledge . And of course, all Gates has for his problem is trolls insisting that he created the coronavirus. (No good deed goes unpunished, even if you are one of the richest people in the world. Perhaps especially if you are.)
Before we delve deeper into Musk and Bezos ‘donations, a quick word about MacKenzie Scott, Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife, who suddenly went from being an anonymous wife to becoming one of the richest women in the world. Scott seems to have recognized this responsibility because, shortly after his divorce, two years ago, it intensified. Last July, it donated $ 1.7 billion to historically black colleges and universities. And then, in December, she gave another $ 4.1 billion to fight COVID.
“I thought MacKenzie Bezos Scott did a lot of great things,” said Chuck Collins of the Institute for Policy Studies. “She did not create a great philanthropic intermediary in her mirror image that will exist in the next century, where her unborn grandchildren will be giving the money. It is moving money quickly and efficiently. She is donating to groups that have been left out of the decision-making process, excluded communities, racial justice organizations. “
Having tens of billions of dollars suddenly thrown into your lap is very different from a fortune growing over several years, and of course Scott can sell his shares without impacting Amazon’s stock price (AMZN) in the same way as would do if her ex-husband announced that, say, he was scrapping 25% of his stake in AMZN.
More on Bezos in a second, but first let’s take a look at Elon Musk, who became stratospheric rich overnight. (See this five-year stock chart.) To be fair, it is very different to plan philanthropy when you have $ 200 million dollars and when you have $ 200 billion. (These problems!) But Musk achieves this, which Recode did a good job of starting, starting with a typically iconoclastic tweet from Musk.
In fact, critical feedback is always highly appreciated, as are ways of donating money that really make a difference (much harder than it looks)
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 8, 2021
The Musk Foundation website is ridiculously basic and does not indicate any Musk donation. According to Forbes, it appears that Musk has donated at least $ 100 million over the past 20 years to various causes, such as scientific research, artificial intelligence, the University of Pennsylvania (Musk’s alma mater) and the Sierra Club. Musk also signed the Giving Pledge in 2012.
Forbes notes, “In 2018, [Musk] tweeted that he would sell about $ 100 million in Tesla shares’ every few years’ to charity and make ‘large disbursements in about 20 years when Tesla was in a stable state. ”So watch in 2038! But Musk had better start splitting if he plans to donate a ‘majority of [his] wealth for philanthropy or charitable causes, either during [his] stocks or in [his] will ‘, as stipulated in the Pledge of Donation. Hence your tweet for help.
It makes sense that Bezos, who has been super rich for longer than Musk, is more philanthropic. Bezos reportedly made the largest philanthropic grant of 2020, a $ 10 billion grant to start the Bezos Earth Fund, “… a global initiative [that] it funds scientists, activists and NGOs … that help preserve and protect the natural world. ”And Bezos, along with Amazon, has donated hundreds of millions to other organizations, including the Smithsonian, local shelters in Washington State and to combat Alzheimer’s. (Undoubtedly, Bezos and Scott are controlling each other’s generosity.)
One problem for Bezos is that it is difficult for him to compare the scale of his donations to his growing net worth. Example: Bezos gave US $ 500,000 to Worldreader, an NGO that aims to “take literacy to remote and underserved areas, providing cities and villages with readers and e-books”. Leaving aside the fact that this looks like a great way to introduce children to the Kindle and Amazon.com, the $ 500,000 Bezos gave is equivalent to someone with a net worth of $ 1 million giving Worldreader about $ 3. (I understand that philanthropy of wealthy people is ungrateful to people like me around.)
It may be that Musk and Bezos give anonymously. I once asked Steve Jobs why he was no longer philanthropic and he answered with a question:
“How do you know that I don’t give anonymously?” Jobs asked me.
“You too?” I asked back.
“I’m not going to tell you,” said Jobs.
(Touché Steve.)
In fact, Alexa Cortes Culwell, co-founder of Open Impact, a San Mateo, Calif., Philanthropic research and consulting firm, says that wealthy technologists do their part when it comes to philanthropy. “We know that Silicon Valley surpasses the country in terms of growing wealth. In fact, Silicon Valley outpaces donations. If you look at how it compares to other cities and the state in general, Silicon Valley is quite generous. “
Glad it’s happening because the rest of us aren’t so inclined to charity now, apparently.
“The concentration of wealth across the country is becoming even more remarkable and is reflected in general donation patterns,” said Amir Pasic, dean of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University. “There are fewer families in the US who are donating. Most non-profit organizations depend on fewer wealthy donors. “
Which means that more and more charities, NGOs and foundations will be relying even more heavily on the super-rich, which seems to be an unhealthy trend in our country today.
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Andy Serwer is chief editor of Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter: @serwer.
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