Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and financiers Carl Icahn and Michael Milken are among 17 new signers of the Giving Pledge.
They join 40 others who in August pledged to donate at least half their wealth to charity. Omaha investor Warren Buffett and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, launched the program last June.
“I’m delighted to welcome these 17 families into the Giving Pledge community,” Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said in a statement Thursday.
The new signers also include Denny Sanford of Sioux Falls, S.D. He is the owner and founder of First Premier Bank and CEO of its holding company, United National Corp.
Buffett’s statement also said: “In just a few short months we’ve made good progress. 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.”
Zuckerberg, 26, one of the world’s youngest billionaires because of the success of his social networking website, said people usually wait until late in their careers to give back.
“But why wait when there is so much to be done?” he said.
“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.”
Buffett and Gates have said that the pledge isn’t a legal contract but rather a moral commitment. Signers make their names public and issue statements about their reasons for joining the campaign.
The new signers and their home states:
Michael and Lori Milken, Dustin Moskovitz and Zuckerberg, California; Joe and Rika Mansueto, Illinois; Nicolas Berggruen, Ted Forstmann, Carl Icahn, Sidney Kimmel, Tom and Cindy Secunda, Charles Zegar and Merryl Snow Zegar, New York; Lee and Toby Cooperman and Duncan and Nancy MacMillan, New Jersey; David and Barbara Green, Oklahoma; Sanford, South Dakota; Lyda Hill and George P. Mitchell, Texas; and Jean and Steve Case, Virginia.
Contact the writer: 402-444-1080; steve.jordon@owh.com; twitter.com/buffettOWH
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
