May 9, 2014 | Read Time: 1 minute
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and her husband, Dave Goldberg, are two of seven philanthropists who have signed the Giving Pledge, the effort advanced by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates to encourage the wealthy to pledge to give at least half of their fortune to charity.
The new signers, announced today, also include Ann Gloag, a co-founder of the international transport company Stagecoach; Paul Orfalea, the founder of the business-services retailer Kinko’s, and his wife, Natalie; and Craig Silverstein, Google’s first employee, and his wife Mary Obelnicki.
Created four years ago by Mr. Buffett and the Gateses, the Giving Pledge now has 127 signatories from 12 countries and 26 American states.
While new to the Giving Pledge, the seven are not new to philanthropy.
Ms. Sandberg, the author of Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, established the LeanIn Foundation to support her LeanIn.org nonprofit, which she created to foster leadership in women. Mr. Goldberg is chief executive of SurveyMonkey, an online polling platform.
Ms. Gloag supports an orphanage and a school in Nairobi through her Balcraig and Gloag foundations, and she created the Freedom From Fistula Foundation to help women injured from prolonged, obstructed childbirth.
The Orfaleas support education, youth-development programs, and emergency and disaster-readiness projects; while Mr. Silverstein and Ms. Obelnicki founded Echidna Giving, a philanthropy that supports in girls’ education in developing countries.
