Bill Gates Speaks on ‘Smarter’ Giving and Philanthropy’s Most Exclusive Club

Bill Gates is America’s richest man—but he is more preoccupied with giving his fortune away than anything else these days.

Mr. Gates and his wife, Melinda, intend to donate more than 90 percent of their roughly $50-billion fortune, and now the couple, along with their friend Warren Buffett, are asking the country’s billionaires to dig deep, too.

The trio are calling upon fellow billionaires to sign a “Giving Pledge” committing at least half their net worth to charity. The Gateses, Mr. Buffett, and the 10 other people who have already come forward to say they have signed the pledge will be hosting dinners this year and next to share what they have learned about giving and encourage others to get more involved.

In an interview with The Chronicle, Mr. Gates talks about what it’s like to ask others to give, his expectations for the Giving Pledge, and why the super rich should join the effort.

What kind of reaction have you been getting from other billionaires?

It’s a big decision for people in terms of how they think about their estate, how they are involving their family in these different things. We’ve had a number of people who have said yes and a number of people who said they appreciate us talking to them and it’s a topic that they will probably put more time into thinking about because of our raising it, but it doesn’t make sense for them to join up at this point. We feel very good about it.

We’ll probably give an update on what we’ve got in the next few months.

Why is it important that this be a public pledge?

We decided that in terms of being open about what we’re doing and creating an atmosphere to draw people in, that we would not only say who is part of it but also encourage people to write a pledge letter where they talk about their philosophy of giving. We think that means we’ll learn from each other, that others who are not in the group will learn. And we hope it will encourage people to think about these topics at a younger age than they might otherwise.

What share of your wealth are you and your wife committing to give away?

We’ll be more in the 90-percent-plus range ourselves. But again, that’s a matter of individual choice. We decided that in terms of the group, a commitment to a majority made sense. And a lot of people get started thinking they’ll just do 50 percent and get drawn in and do more.

How would you respond to someone who said, “I may give, but I’ll come to it in my own time. I don’t need to sign a public statement”?

There’s nothing about this pledge that in any sense constrains the way you do it. So I’d say they shouldn’t worry about that. But there are people who choose to not talk about their giving. In some of those cases, they wouldn’t choose to belong to this group. Just because someone doesn’t belong to this group doesn’t mean they aren’t off doing some giving. It’s not a hard sell. It’s mostly people who want to join in and see a value of the association. And by getting quite a few people involved, we think it will encourage more people to think about giving.

How will you measure if this effort has been successful?

At each of the dinners we said to ourselves, did we learn something that will help us be better givers? We asked the other people who came, Did you value this? The response was overwhelmingly positive. In terms of future gatherings, we’ll apply that same test. We won’t be able to measure how much more giving there would have been as a result of us getting together or how much earlier giving or how much better giving. But I do think increasing the visibility of philanthropy, where people talk about the impact and how they enjoy it, has a positive effect.

Do you think we’ll reach a time when the public expects billionaires to give away most of their money?

That’s a little too strong. This isn’t a group that says people should feel forced to do it. This is a group about people voluntarily giving and trying to do so in the best way they can.

Will you be playing a role in helping people give in a smarter way?

Everyone in the group will have thoughts about where they gave in a smart way and where they gave in a way that wasn’t so smart. That’s what those dinner conversations are about. You learned some things about what could be done with low overhead, you learned some things about what can really have an impact. Our general philosophy is to be very open about where we’ve learned. We don’t have the measuring stick, but we have some experiences to share.