Only 5 billionaires including the founders of Zynga, FTX and 23andme have signed up to The Giving Pledge this year
- The number of billionaires pledging to give away most of their wealth has fallen to a record low.
- Only five have signed up for The Giving Pledge in 2022, down from 14 last year.
The fewest number of billionaires have joined The Giving Pledge this year since the foundation of the initiative helping philanthropists give away most of their wealth.
The Giving Pledge was founded by Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates and Warren Buffett in 2010 when dozens of America's wealthiest people pledged to donate the bulk of their fortune to help solve problems in society.
The list includes Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Coinbase chief Brian Armstrong, and hedge fund manager Bill Ackman among its pledgers.
Just five billionaires have joined the list this year, down from 14 in 2021. The most pledgers, 58, joined the list when it was founded in 2010.
Jeff Bezos, ranked by Forbes as the world's second-richest person worth $171 billion, is noticeably missing from The Giving Pledge. But his former wife, MacKenzie Scott, joined in 2019.
This year's signatories include Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of crypto exchange FTX; the founder of video game developer Zynga, Mark Pincus; and Anne Wojcicki, co-founder of 23andme.
"A while ago I became convinced that our duty was to do the most we could for the long run aggregate utility of the world," Bankman-Fried said in his pledge letter. He said what "matters the most" is the work his friends and colleagues do at foundations.
Mala Gaonkar, former managing director of Lone Pine Capital and founder of investment firm SurgoCap Partners, also signed up this year. She said in her pledge letter that giving money away has "richly rewarded" her.
"People who work quietly, often at great risk, often at great cost to them and those they love, people who resist the misplaced value society places on fame and wealth as markers of talent or even virtue," she said. "Such people are some of the most fulfilled people I know."
The full list of signatories can be read here.
The Giving Pledge did not respond to Insider's request for comment.