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Wednesday, Sep 19, 2012 4:08 PM UTC

More billionaires pledge fortunes to charity

Eleven more ultra-rich people join the Buffett-Gates pledge

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Topics: Bill Gates, Philanthropy, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett, Patriotic Billionaire Challenge, Charity, Netflix,

More billionaires pledge fortunes to charityWarren Buffett (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

In 2010, investment leviathan Warren Buffett joined computer mogul Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, in launching the Giving Pledge to convince similarly rich people to give 50 percent or more of their fortunes to charity. On Tuesday 11 new multimillionaires and billionaires joined the initiative. New pledges, including Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and the guy behind those little five-hour energy drinks, join illustrious philanthropists like Mark Zuckerburg, Ted Turner and Michael Bloomberg in agreeing that they can probably do without at least half of their fortunes.

Check out our slide show introducing some the Buffett-Gates pledges.

Billionaires slideshow

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  • Who's that in your Instant Queue? Why it's Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings. Hastings is also on the board of Microsoft and Facebook. He has many millions (estimated net worth: $641 million) but fewer millions than he had last year before Netflix stock plummeted.

    Reed Hastings, new pledge and Netflix CEO

  • Billionaire Gordon Moore co-founded the Intel Corporation and is believed by Forbes to be worth $3.8 billion. He's no stranger to philanthropy, notes Forbes: "The Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation doles out $183 million annually to support environmental conservation and fundamental science, plus science museums, nursing care, and land conservation in the San Francisco Bay Area."

    Gordon Moore, new pledge and co-founder of the Intel Corporation

  • The family liquor company, Seagram, provided Charles Bronfman a fortune. More of this booze money will be directed to philanthropic causes now Bronfman has taken the Buffett-Gates pledge.

    Charles Bronfman, new pledge of Seagram's fortune

  • All those little two-ounce pick-me-ups produced quite a fortune for founder Manoj Bhargava, estimated to be worth around $1.3 billion.

    Manoj Bhargava, new pledge and founder of 5-hour Energy

  • Alongside Bill Gates, Buffett launched The Giving Pledge in 2010 to encourage the ultra-wealthy to share.

    Pledge master Buffett

  • Before the pledge, Gates had already donated much of his wealth to philanthropic causes through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

    Pledge master Gates

  • George Lucas is believed to have a net worth of $3.25 billion and is among early Giving Pledge members, which perhaps offers some solace to Star Wars fans furious at the director for the prequel trilogy.

    Director and pledge, George Lucas

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Natasha Lennard is an assistant news editor at Salon, covering non-electoral politics, general news and rabble-rousing. Follow her on Twitter @natashalennard, email nlennard@salon.com. More Natasha Lennard.

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What To Read Awards: Top 10 Books of 2012 slide show

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  • 10. "The Guardians" by Sarah Manguso: "Though Sarah Manguso’s 'The Guardians' is specifically about losing a dear friend to suicide, she pries open her intelligent heart to describe our strange, sad modern lives. I think about the small resonating moments of Manguso’s narrative every day." -- M. Rebekah Otto, The Rumpus

  • 9. "Beautiful Ruins" by Jess Walter: "'Beautiful Ruins' leads my list because it's set on the coast of Italy in 1962 and Richard Burton makes an entirely convincing cameo appearance. What more could you want?" -- Maureen Corrigan, NPR's "Fresh Air"

  • 8. "Arcadia" by Lauren Groff: "'Arcadia' captures our painful nostalgia for an idyllic past we never really had." -- Ron Charles, Washington Post

  • 7. "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn: "When a young wife disappears on the morning of her fifth wedding anniversary, her husband becomes the automatic suspect in this compulsively readable thriller, which is as rich with sardonic humor and social satire as it is unexpected plot twists." -- Marjorie Kehe, Christian Science Monitor

  • 6. "How Should a Person Be" by Sheila Heti: "There was a reason this book was so talked about, and it’s because Heti has tapped into something great." -- Jason Diamond, Vol. 1 Brooklyn

  • 4. TIE "NW" by Zadie Smith and "Far From the Tree" by Andrew Solomon: "Zadie Smith’s 'NW' is going to enter the canon for the sheer audacity of the book’s project." -- Roxane Gay, New York Times "'Far From the Tree' by Andrew Solomon is, to my mind, a life-changing book, one that's capable of overturning long-standing ideas of identity, family and love." -- Laura Miller, Salon

  • 3. "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" by Ben Fountain: "'Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk' says a lot about where we are today," says Marjorie Kehe of the Christian Science Monitor. "Pretty much the whole point of that novel," adds Time's Lev Grossman.

  • 2. "Bring Up the Bodies" by Hilary Mantel: "Even more accomplished than the preceding novel in this sequence, 'Wolf Hall,' Mantel's new installment in the fictionalized life of Thomas Cromwell -- master secretary and chief fixer to Henry VIII -- is a high-wire act, a feat of novelistic derring-do." -- Laura Miller, Salon

  • 1. "Behind the Beautiful Forevers" by Katherine Boo: "Like the most remarkable literary nonfiction, it reads with the bite of a novel and opens up a corner of the world that most of us know absolutely nothing about. It stuck with me all year." -- Eric Banks, president of the National Book Critics Circle

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