Nonbelievers lead “largest philanthropic work ever”

It’s often and widely reported that Christians give more to charity than nonbelievers. Secular groups are turning the tide, including the agnostic-led “The Giving Pledge” project.

Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Berkshire Hathaway’s William Buffett, both billionaires, have long personal histories in philanthropy. Buffett committed in 2006 to eventually give all his Berkshire Hathway stock to philanthropic foundations. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has directed hundreds of millions of dollars to improving the lives of millions around the world.

The surprise for some? Both Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are nonbelievers. Gates, agnostic:

In terms of doing things I take a fairly scientific approach to why things happen and how they happen. I don’t know if there’s a god or not, but I think religious principles are quite valid. – 1995 PBS interview

Buffett, likewise:

In an article in WIRED about Warren Allen Smith, the creator of the website Philosopedia, it discusses how Smith has spent 6 decades writing people to ask if they believe in God. He’s received a variety of responses and Buffett’s came back, scrawled on a postcard with a one word answer: “Agnostic”.

The pair decided that their money wasn’t enough to meet the massive needs they see. They have teamed up to form “The Giving Pledge,” dedicated to encouraging others to donate their wealth. It is on track to become the largest philanthropic work in the history of humanity.

Thus far, the pair has signed up nearly 40 billionaires to the project. The public promise is just that — not legally binding, but a public pledge.

The organization’s website declares it to be “an effort to invite the wealthiest individuals and families in America to commit to giving the majority of their wealth to philanthropy.”

Pledges may be viewed on the site, including Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City; George Lucas; T. Boone Pickens; and more.

Is there a downside to this project? Quite possibly, if your expectation is that the charities will be similar to those Gates and Buffett support. The pledge is only that they will donate the majority of their wealth to “charity”. There is no direction for those donations; they are not agreeing to donate to any particular causes or organizations.

One pledge is from Thomas Monaghan:

After selling Domino’s, I created a number of priorities that would guide my giving. However, I soon concluded that I needed to focus these priorities even more (as my resources were finite), and I eventually concluded that the most important thing I believed I could do with the resources that I had been blessed with was to help build quality, faithful Catholic education. A number of years before, I had started supporting Catholic education by getting involved with grade schools, and this was great, but building schools was expensive. I realized that to have a more global impact, I would need to focus on Catholic higher education – to train the teachers, the principals, the future Catholic university and seminary professors.

So, from my experience of sitting on numerous college and university boards and the expertise of some well respected Catholic academics, we set out on a journey to establish Ave Maria University and Ave Maria School of Law. Since that time, I have not only committed my personal assets to these institutions, but they have become my life’s work, as I am now going around the country raising money for them.

Not only has Monaghan donated from his considerable wealth to found and support a conservative sectarian university, he has also founded the Thomas More Law Center, which declares itself “the sword and shield for people of faith”. Recent TMLC cases include suing the City of New York over the “Ground Zero Mosque”; suing the Federal government over the Hate Crimes Act (because it was expanded to prohibit hate crimes against sexual minorities, which restricts Catholics’ religious freedom); and representing a pro-life group who wanted to display large photographs of aborted fetuses outside a middle school.

The project has been met with acclaim in most of the world, but not so in Germany, where it received a cold response. Some of the most wealthy Germans have already donated half or more of their wealth to foundations of their choosing. Der Spiegel interviewed shipping magnate Peter Krämer, a particularly vocal critic of the project, who made clear a profound cultural difference between Germany and the US:

Krämer: It is all just a bad transfer of power from the state to billionaires. So it’s not the state that determines what is good for the people, but rather the rich want to decide. That’s a development that I find really bad. What legitimacy do these people have to decide where massive sums of money will flow?

SPIEGEL: It is their money at the end of the day.

Krämer: In this case, 40 superwealthy people want to decide what their money will be used for. That runs counter to the democratically legitimate state . . . it would have been a greater deed on the part of Mr. Gates or Mr. Buffet if they had given the money to small communities in the US so that they can fulfil public duties.

Is Krämer an adequate representative of Germany’s wealthy? He seems to believe that the state should decide how the money he himself has earned should be spent. This doesn’t square with other Germans who have given half or more of their wealth to charities already.

Germans aren’t the only people viewing this public declaration of donation with some skepticism. Vincent Fernando of BusinessInsider comments:

While we don’t agree with many of Mr. Krämer’s expressed views, we have to admit that the entire act of giving away vast sums of money away so publicly has seemed a bit of an ego-trip for the billionaires involved. In effect, one can argue that they are trying to buy themselves public adoration and a legacy, which doesn’t come easy no matter how much money you have. Obviously, money donated to good causes is always useful, but the act of massive giving could be more selfish than it appears.

What do you think? Are you glad to see a pair of nonbelievers showing that it doesn’t require religion to care for others? Does it all look like an ego trip to you? Are these donors usurping the charitable position the state should hold, as Krämer suggests?

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