Germany’s Rich Reject Gates-Buffett ‘Giving Pledge’

The wealthiest Germans are responding skeptically to Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates’s effort to persuade the world’s billionaires to pledge the bulk of their fortunes to charity, the German magazine Der Spiegel reports in its international edition.

An asset manager for one German billionaire contacted by Mr. Gates said many of the country’s super-rich have already transferred more than half of their wealth to charity and consider the “Giving Pledge” campaign “too ostentatious.” Peter Kramer, a Hamburg shipping magnate and philanthropist, blasted the effort as “a bad transfer of power from the state to billionaires.”

India’s billionaires have also shown little enthusiasm for the Gates-Buffett campaign, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Billionaires or their representatives contacted by Indian news media have declined to comment or offer a firm response on whether they would sign the pledge. Emily Harrison, a Mumbai consultant for wealthy Indians who want to establish foundations, said limited and often corruption-riddled channels for charity discourage giving by the country’s tycoons.

And the effort is likely to have little effect on giving to Jewish causes, even though 13 of the 40 billionaires to have publicly made the pledge are Jews, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency says. The committed mega-donors have generally focused on higher education, health care, and the arts, Mark Charendoff, the president of the Jewish Funders Network, told the news service.

See The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s full coverage of the Giving Pledge.