Wealthy People Want to Give More. Why Aren’t They?

When Forbes published this year’s list of America’s 400 richest people, most reactions focused on the staggering wealth of this tiny slice of society. That’s understandable, given that the minimum wealth needed to make the list is now $3.8 billion, with 500 billionaires “too poor” to make the cut.

At least as interesting to me, however, are the philanthropy scores Forbes assigns to each of these folks and what they reveal about generosity trends among the uber-wealthy.

At a macro level, the news isn’t great. Only 35 members of the Forbes 400 achieved the highest philanthropy scores of 4 or 5, meaning they’ve deployed more than 10 percent or 20 percent, respectively, of their net wealth to charities. (Giving to their own foundations or donor-advised funds doesn’t count toward distribution.) That’s less than one in 10, which is why I call this group the “outliers.”

As a philanthropic adviser at Phīla Engaged Giving, I’d love to see a much higher share of the wealthiest Americans earn top philanthropy scores and invest in the critical work of nonprofits. I know many ultra-high-net-wealth individuals and families who would like to give more. So why don’t they just write bigger checks? Because as I’ve observed, and as organizations like the National Center for Family Philanthropy have documented, several hurdles related to time, decision making, and behavior stand in the way of giving more. These include:

• A lack of time to devote to philanthropy.
• Feeling overwhelmed by the number of needs, causes, and organizations to support — and worrying about making the wrong choice.
• A tendency to put off big topics, such as how much wealth donors will need in their later years and how much to leave their kids.
• Friction within families when spouses or children disagree on cause areas, time horizons, and which nonprofits to support, coupled with unclear decision roles and differing tolerances for risk.

When one or more of these barriers is present, giving stalls. At a time when government funding cuts are putting the survival of many charitable organizations in jeopardy, such hesitation can have dire consequences.

Fortunately, there’s a simple answer to this problem: Wealthy donors need to behave more like the Forbes 400 outliers. In turn, nonprofits contemplating strategies for reaching this group should consider how these barriers may be standing in the way of giving and what they can do to help knock them down.

Model Behavior

In my experience, those who sustain a high level of giving exhibit several of the following behaviors:

They articulate a purpose. That means they put in writing why they give, the change they hope to see, and what success looks like for them. They are also specific about their goals, naming communities they want to serve, outcomes they hope to achieve, and when they’d like to see progress.

They enlist experts. Outliers make philanthropy a team sport. They hire staff and/or consultants to help them craft a plan to meet their goals, including building a giving portfolio and identifying potential grantees that match their mission.

They clarify roles. That entails creating a simple governance structure that defines who decides what, when, and how. They spell out how often they’ll meet, and the dollar amount each family member or staff can approve on their own before taking it to the larger group.

They make bigger gifts. As their wealth grows, they increase the amount of gifts and make multi-year commitments. When they’re new to an issue, they don’t wait to become experts. Instead, they join a collaborative or work through an intermediary funder that already knows the field, so money moves while they learn.

They revisit their goals. They gather family and advisers at least annually to discuss what’s working and incorporate what they’ve learned to adjust their giving strategy. They review annual gains, future wealth projections, and upcoming cash infusions, such as from a company sale or IPO to inform their budget so that giving keeps pace.

They hold themselves accountable. Outliers often share goals publicly and rely on trusted peers and advisers who serve as accountability partners. They may state their intentions in a letter to family members, join a philanthropy peer group, or commit to a bold giving threshold through initiatives such as the Giving Pledge, Generation Pledge, and Women Moving Millions.

In my own analysis of the 2025 Forbes 400, one subset of the outlier group stood out: Giving Pledge signatories were four times more likely to show up in the top generosity tiers than non-signatories. That doesn’t prove causation, but it does suggest that declaring an intention — and being public about it — often goes hand-in-hand with giving more.

This year, nine out of 11 people in the top generosity tier are Giving Pledge signatories: Edythe Broad, Warren Buffett, Melinda French Gates, Bill Gates, Reed Hastings and Patty Quillin, Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna, Lynn Schusterman, MacKenzie Scott, and Marilyn Simons. The non-signatories are George Soros and Amos Hostetter Jr.

Previously, signatories John and Laura Arnold were included in the top giving tier, but after donating about $2 billion, they dropped out of the Forbes 400 altogether. In the next highest tier, 13 out of 24 are Giving Pledge signatories, including Michael Bloomberg, George Kaiser, Michael Moritz and Harriet Heyman, and John A. and Susan Sobrato.

Advisers’ Role

One subtle challenge to giving more is the wealth-advisory system itself. Wealth, tax, and legal advisers may assume that clients’ main concern is to preserve and grow wealth. Since compensation is often based on the size of clients’ assets, financial advisers are faced with an inherent conflict and may have little incentive to initiate conversations that would reduce those fortunes.

Wealthy donors need to make their philanthropic goals clear to their advisers and align incentives accordingly. Many who plan to give away most of their wealth shift from a strictly assets-under-management fee system to a flat annual retainer or a blend of both. That way, advisers can champion the giving plan without taking a pay cut.

The Forbes 400 reminds us how fast fortunes are accumulating and how rare it remains for the rich to give away a large percentage of their wealth. If more donors follow the outliers and design philanthropy practices to address common barriers to giving, much-needed dollars will move sooner to address urgent societal needs.

Correction: A previous version of this article said that John and Laura Arnold donated about $5 billion instead of $2 billion.