How America’s richest donate their money

Billionaires don’t give the same way we do.
Subscribe and turn on notifications 🔔 so you don't miss any videos: goo.gl/0bsAjO
Every year, publications like Forbes release lists detailing the generosity of society’s richest philanthropists. But the raw numbers of their donations don’t tell the whole story of how ultra-wealthy charitable giving tends to work. We took that data and put it on a big chart that highlights exactly how much of each billionaire’s personal wealth is going toward charitable giving.
This video outlines how wealth inequality creates a distorted view of the generosity of America’s billionaires. We examine the causes their money goes to support, like education and public health. And we break down the actual methods they use to move massive amounts of donated money around, like foundations and secretive donor-advised funds.
Measuring wealth and philanthropic giving is difficult and subjective. We relied on Forbes’s specific methodology for our chart, but lists like the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s “The Philanthropy 50” use their own methods. www.philanthropy.com/article/...
Correction: In a previous version of this video, the equation at 1:05 was incorrectly flipped. We've updated the animation.
Here is the original Forbes list we mention in the video:
www.forbes.com/sites/forbeswe...
If you’re wondering why Elon Musk isn’t on the Forbes list despite a $5.7 billion donation of Tesla shares in 2021, it’s probably because it was speculated that the money went to a donor-advised fund:
www.forbes.com/sites/elizahav...
They also do their own guide on “giving scores”:
www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsa...
The inspiration for this chart came from this Reddit post using numbers from a previous Forbes list:
/ oc_forbes_2022s_most_p...
Here is a list of all the Giving Pledge signatories:
givingpledge.org/pledgerlist
For more reading on the rise of donor-advised funds:
www.nytimes.com/2021/06/09/bu...
We interviewed Vox senior reporter Whizy Kim, who recently covered Jeff Bezos’s philanthropy:
www.vox.com/recode/23553730/j...
She also covered the ways everyday Americans give that aren’t captured in charitable tax deduction data:
www.vox.com/recode/2022/9/27/...
Make sure you never miss behind-the-scenes content in the Vox Video newsletter, sign up here: vox.com/video-newsletter
Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out www.vox.com
Support Vox's reporting with a one-time or recurring contribution: vox.com/contribute-now
Shop the Vox merch store: vox.com/store
Watch our full video catalog: goo.gl/IZONyE
Follow Vox on Facebook: / vox
Follow Vox on Twitter: / voxdotcom
Follow Vox on TikTok: / voxdotcom

[@e13kid]

Shout out to that one guy who actually gave all his fortune away.

[@Mookle123]

I personally HATE donations to univerities. Universities are already so predatory, and it was a pretty common sight to see a big, fancy, barely-used building with someone's name one it collecting dust.

[@daviga1]

Giving is not a equitable substitute for wages and taxes.

[@hakeem_jc]

I slightly disagree with that last sentences. You really should tax billionaires more, yes, but you also need the government to have far more generous social spending to not need charity, which a lot of politicians (and voters) are going to fight, tooth and nail

[@goatmanx99]

The standard deduction has increased a ton since 1990, so it makes sense middle income people are not itemizing their charitable deductions. You have to donate many thousands for it to be worth itemizing. I think charitable donations should be a separate tax deduction from the standard deduction, so that middle income people are encouraged to give. Also, making it so only liquid assets like cash are eligible to be deducted would remove many of the loopholes rich exploit, like donating art to museums to drive up the value of their collections. Normal people aren't donating many high value assets.

[@AvishaiTsur]

Isn't the lifetime giving as a percentage of wealth formula flipped?

[@DPowered2]

Billionaires don't give out of kindness they give because they get more out of it for themselves and a defense against their actions because they have something to point to when you call them out

[@joshnizzle]

Most of them give to charities that they are owners of.

[@garetr]

2:13

[@malacki6554]

“Charity is a cold, grey loveless thing. If a rich man wants to help the poor, he should pay his taxes gladly, not dole out money at a whim.” Clement Attlee, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

[@mghbhgm7091]

If this class keeps amassing more and more money, there IS no asking ourselves "what are we doing wrong here and how do we reverse this", because this class holds all the power. To go one step further, I'd argue that's already the case.

[@MelbourneMeMe]

Spoiler: they don't donate their money.

[@anthonyfn]

I wonder how much more value you could extract from this money if they were taxed fairly, instead of waiting for them to give to charity.

[@Sinaeb]

billionaires giving money means they have to pay less in taxes, as such, they can decide which things will not actually help people get out of poverty so they can stay richer

[@shabizlolly8134]

Imagine being rich like I could never

[@alvinarakkal2433]

All I want from these billionaires is that rather than faking donation they properly pay their taxes which really helps the needy

[@Otis151]

I like the manual approach to your charts in this video. Must have been a lot of work! But it looks great. Thanks for the great video, as always.

[@napoleonibonaparte7198]

Makes Michael Scott look more ethical with Scott's Tots.

[@1KJRoberts]

Wow, this piece was informative & fascinating. Great work, Vox!

[@CozyJoney]

the commitment to philanthropy was carnage’s idea