More money to the charity

Hi

Today, I want to share an article by Rob Guth and Shelly Banjo

NEW YORK—Billionaire Oracle Corp. Chairman Larry Ellison will join director George Lucas and 38 other billionaires who are following a call in June by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates to pledge to give the majority of their wealth to charity.

On Wednesday, the trio will announce that 40 of America's wealthiest individuals and families, from Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen to hotel mogul Barron Hilton have signed on to the "Giving Pledge," an invitation Messrs. Buffett and Gates extended in June to ask America's wealthiest families to publicly commit to giving away at least half of their wealth to charity within their lifetimes or after their deaths.

The pledge stemmed from a series of dinners the two men held for the nation's billionaires over the past year to discuss the effects of the recession on philanthropy.

As philanthropy can often be a private matter, some signatories came as a surprise. Software mogul Larry Ellison is among those who have given widely but rarely stated their intentions so publicly.

"Until now, I have done this giving quietly—because I have long believed that charitable giving is a personal and private matter," wrote Mr. Ellison in a public letter on the Giving Pledge's website.

He said he put virtually all his assets into a trust with the intention of giving away at least 95% of his wealth to charitable causes and has already given hundreds of millions of dollars to medical research and education.

"So why am I going public now? Warren Buffett personally asked me to write this letter because he said I would be 'setting an example' and 'influencing others' to give," Mr. Ellison wrote. "I hope he's right."

Other billionaires on the list, including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens, had previously stated their plans to give away the majority of their wealth to charity but said calling attention to their plans will encourage others to follow suit.

"I've long stated that I enjoy making money, and I enjoy giving it away. I like making money more, but giving it away is a close second," Mr. Pickens wrote in a letter on the Giving Pledge webite. "To date, I've given away nearly $800 million to a wide-range of charitable organizations, and I look forward to the day I hit the $1 billion mark."

Thanks

MC