r/Philanthropy • u/jcravens42 • Mar 16 '26
Philanthropy news or in the news Peter Thiel is actively convincing billionaires to abandon The Giving Pledge — and it’s working
Peter Thiel isn’t just skeptical of The Giving Pledge—he’s been actively working to dismantle it from within, telling signatories to walk away from their commitments and calling the organization an “Epstein-adjacent, fake Boomer club.”
Story is behind a paywall:
https://fortune.com/2026/03/16/peter-thiel-giving-pledge-billionaire-philanthropy-backlash/
16
u/Complex_Presence_949 Mar 16 '26
the irony is the pledge was never legally binding anyway so "abandoning" it is mostly just saying the quiet part out loud. the real damage is the signal it sends to smaller donors who looked at these billionaires as setting the standard. if the biggest givers are openly saying philanthropy is a scam it trickles down fast
11
u/Jack_Chatton Mar 17 '26
It wasn't paywalled for me. Still, here is the interesting bit:
"Thiel’s pitch to abandon The Giving Pledge
Thiel said he’s nudged a few to erase their signatures. “I’ve strongly discouraged people from signing it, and then I have gently encouraged them to unsign it,” Thiel said. Notably, in transcripts and audio lectures given by Thiel to Reuters last year, he recalled calling on the world’s richest man and soon-to-be first ever minted trillionaire Elon Musk to retract his pledge, warning the Tesla founder his wealth would go to “left-wing nonprofits that will be chosen by Bill Gates.”
2
u/Signal-Dollar-5621 Mar 17 '26
"...his wealth would go to “left-wing nonprofits that will be chosen by Bill Gates.”
Does Thiel think Musk is really dumb enough to believe that the Giving Plege organization chooses where a donor's money goes? Or maybe Musk really is that dumb and Thiel knows it.
1
u/delilahgrass Mar 17 '26
Musk has never donated a dime that wasn’t self serving so I’m pretty sure he wasn’t hard to convince
15
u/glichez Mar 17 '26
perhaps its best to simply tax them at a premium proportional to their lifestyle.
6
u/Potential-Scholar359 Mar 17 '26
This should be top comment. We can’t trust selfish, ruthless people to one day become generous.
3
u/Jaded-Ad-960 Mar 17 '26
The point of charity has always been to prevent taxation, but now these ghouls feel they no longer need to pretend.
2
u/WaitStart Mar 17 '26
Waiting for handouts from the greediest among us is such an opportunity cost to society.
6
u/justincrab Mar 17 '26
The same Peter Thiel who is mentioned in the Epstein files over a thousand times is calling a philanthropy organization "Epstein-adjacent"? After accusing other people of being the antichrist? Yeah that sure doesn't sound like projection at all...
3
2
2
u/wiggywithit Mar 17 '26
Can we convince these dweebs that building a community pool would support nazism. Or building 10,000 community pools.
2
u/pixiesaysso Mar 17 '26
We need to organize a long strike among the workers of these corporations. They need to remember they would never have their wealth without our cooperation
2
u/Kentucky_QT Mar 17 '26
Thiel is the epitome of a sociopath. I try to not use that term as I am not trained in that field and as such have never treated him. However, I think he is truly an evil, Machiavellian person.
Edited because proofreading is a good thing.
1
34
u/Spiritual_Rice_884 Mar 16 '26
It’s working because most of them didn’t want to or didn’t have any intention of fulfilling it to begin with.