Billionaire philanthropists claim to play a key role in advancing well-being and public goods across the world. One of the most prominent recent expressions of these efforts is the Giving Pledge, created in 2010 by Bill and Melinda Gates in collaboration with Warren Buffett. After a decade of its existence, this analysis of the Giving Pledge population and its commitment letters shows an overall dominance of white, male, and US-based billionaires among the signatories. Tech billionaires are a wealthier and younger subgroup of pledgers than their counterparts in other industries. The pledge letters reveal an emphasis on education and health as dominant philanthropic causes. Among explanations for giving, the four most frequent reasons mentioned are a desire to make a difference, a wish to give back, a sense of personal fulfillment resulting from giving, and references to being socialized into philanthropic giving early in life. While the Giving Pledge is the most prominent global effort to increase philanthropic giving among the wealthy, the voluntary nature and relatively modest commitment goal make it difficult to assess its significance and impact.

亿万富翁慈善家声称在促进全球福祉和公共产品方面发挥了关键作用。这些努力最近最突出的表现之一是由比尔和梅琳达·盖茨与沃伦·巴菲特合作于 2010 年创建的捐赠誓言。在其存在十年后，对捐赠承诺人口及其承诺书的分析显示，在签署者中，白人、男性和美国亿万富翁总体上占主导地位。与其他行业的同行相比，科技亿万富翁是一群更富有、更年轻的承诺者。承诺书表明，教育和健康是主要的慈善事业。在对给予的解释中，最常提到的四个原因是希望有所作为、希望回馈、一种因捐赠而产生的个人成就感，以及在生命早期被社会化为慈善捐赠的参考。虽然捐赠誓言是增加富人慈善捐赠的最突出的全球努力，但其自愿性质和相对适度的承诺目标使其难以评估其重要性和影响。