Health Records Billionaire Judy Faulkner, Chobani Yogurt Founder, 8 Others Join The Giving Pledge – Forbes
Electronic health records entrepreneur Judy Faulkner.
The Giving Pledge was launched in 2010 by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates to encourage billionaires to give the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes. Others who just signed onto the pledge include Chobani yogurt founder Hamdi Ulukaya, former Cleveland Cavaliers owner Gordon Gund and his wife Llura, Indian education entrepreneur Sunny Varkey and his wife Sherly, Brazilian property developer (formerly on Forbes World’s Billionaires list) Elie Horn and his wife Susy, Chicago technology investor and entrepreneur Brad Keywell and his wife Kim, and oil services billionaire Sir Ian Wood of the U.K.
Faulkner said in her Giving Pledge letter that she plans to give away 99% of her wealth. My goal in pledging 99% of my wealth to philanthropy is to help others with roots food, warmth, shelter, healthcare, education so they too can have wings,” Faulkner wrote.
Hamdi Ulukaya, who was born in Turkey and has built a $1.4 billion fortune making Chobani yogurt in the U.S., wrote in his Giving Pledge letter that, “I dedicate the signing of the Giving Pledge to my mother and I am publicly committing the majority of my personal wealth along with everything else I can do to to help refugees and help bring an end to this humanitarian crisis.”
Those who sign the Giving Pledge meet throughout the year to discuss challenges and successes and how to be smarter about giving. The Giving Pledge organizers said topics discussed at this year’s annual gathering, which just wrapped up, included leveraging philanthropy to drive women’s economic opportunities, solving environmental issues and philanthropy’s role in scientific and medical research.
The larger goal of the Giving Pledge is to change the way charitable giving takes place. “Over the long term, the Giving Pledge hopes to help shift the social norms of philanthropy toward giving more, giving sooner and giving smarter,” the Giving Pledge organization said in a statement. So far less than 8% of the 1,826 billionaires Forbes found for our 2015 list of the World’s Billionaires have signed on to the pledge, although plenty of billionaires do make charitable contributions on their own, without joining the Pledge.
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