Founders Pledge

Founders Pledge
Founded	2015; 9 years ago
Founder	Dafna Bonas, David Goldberg
Type	Non-profit
Location	London, England;
Area served	Global
Membership	1,776 (May 2023)
Website	founderspledge.com

Founders Pledge is a London-based charitable initiative, where entrepreneurs commit to donate a portion of their personal proceeds to charity when they sell their business.^[3]^[4]^[5] Inspired by effective altruism, the mission of Founders Pledge is to "empower entrepreneurs to do immense good".^[6]

By May 2023, 1,776 entrepreneurs across 30 countries^[3] have signed up to Founders Pledge. Collectively, they have pledged to donate $9.3 billion in share value (of which $891 million in donations have been completed to date).^[7]

History

Founders Pledge was initially launched in 2015 by the Founders Forum for Good, which focuses on helping social entrepreneurs build and scale businesses.^[8] David Goldberg, co-founder and CEO of Founders Pledge, has stated that the ideas of effective altruism, and the work of 80,000 Hours in particular, have influenced the trajectory of the organization.^[9]

Founders Pledge was named one of the New Radicals 2016, which are "innovative projects chosen by The Observer and Nesta as making a real difference to society".^[10]

Starting in London, Founders Pledge has since expanded and opened multiple new offices in cities such as Berlin,^[11] New York and San Francisco.^[3] In addition, Founders Pledge has launched partnerships with organisations including Y Combinator,^[12] MassChallenge, and Forward Partners.^[13] In September 2016, Sam Altman, president of Y Combinator, wrote on the Y Combinator blog: "Many of our founders ask us about how they can donate part of their equity or post exit proceeds, and now we have an answer: Founders Pledge."^[14]

Since 2016, Founders Pledge was awarded two major grants⁠—totaling more than $6 million⁠—from the Open Philanthropy Project, a foundation largely funded by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz.^[15]^[16]^[17]

Activities

Founders Pledge runs three main types of activities, all of which are free of charge for its members.^[3]^[7]

First, they aim to build a community of impact-driven entrepreneurs by organizing events to educate members on evidence-backed impact strategies.^[18]
Second, they provide administrative support with donations and offer a donor-advised fund.^[19]
Third, Founders Pledge conducts research on high-leverage giving opportunities and advises its members on where to give based on their personal values.^[3]^[20]

Research

Founders Pledge partners with GiveWell for its research on cost-effective global health and development charities. In addition, Founders Pledge has written research reports on various topics, including:

impact investing,^[21]
climate change,^[22]^[23]
evidence-based policy,^[24]
animal welfare,
mental health,^[25]
and the mitigation of existential risks.^[3]

Members

Entrepreneurs signing up to Founders Pledge enter a legally binding commitment to donate a portion of their personal proceeds on liquidity to charity. The minimum commitment is 2%, though on average entrepreneurs commit around 7%.^[26] Comparing several donation pledging initiatives, Vox writes that Founders Pledge forces The Giving Pledge "to compete for the mindshare of today’s tech community".^[27]

A complete list of members is available on the Founders Pledge website.^[28] Notable members of Founders Pledge include the following:

Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of Google DeepMind^[15]
Kathryn Petralia, Co-founder and COO of Kabbage

References

^ "Forbes". Retrieved 15 December 2019.
^ "Founders Pledge Homepage". Founders Pledge. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Bell, Douglas. "The Radical Founders Raising Billions For Charity - Is This A New Social Movement?". Forbes. Archived from the original on August 29, 2019. Retrieved 2019-12-15.
^ Rovnick, Naomi (2016-05-06). "Wealthy millennials explore venture philanthropy". Financial Times. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
^ Schultz, Abby. "The Age of Moonshots". www.barrons.com. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
^ "About Us". Founders Pledge. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
^ ^a ^b "Home". Founders Pledge. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
^ Volpicelli, Gian (2017-06-12). "Brent Hoberman left lastminute.com and formed an empire. This is how he did it". Wired UK. ISSN 1357-0978. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
^ "One of the most exciting new effective altruist organizations: An interview with David Goldberg of the Founders Pledge". 80,000 Hours. 2015-11-26. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
^ Marsden, Harriet; Fallon, Katy (2016-07-10). "More of the best New Radicals 2016". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
^ Shead, Sam. "Germany's multimillionaire startup founders are being encouraged to donate to worthwhile causes". Business Insider. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
^ "Y Combinator signs up to Founders Pledge charity scheme for social causes". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
^ Partners, Forward (2018-02-07). "Our pre-seed termsheet". Medium. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
^ Altman, Sam. "YC and Founders Pledge". Y Combinator. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
^ ^a ^b Shead, Sam. "Facebook's little-known billionaire cofounder is funding a London charity". Business Insider. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
^ "Founders Pledge — General Support". Open Philanthropy. 2016-10-14. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
^ "Founders Pledge — General Support (2018)". Open Philanthropy. 2018-01-24. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
^ "Community". Founders Pledge. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
^ "How It Works". Founders Pledge. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
^ "Research". Founders Pledge. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
^ "The difficulty with the EU's sustainable investment rules". Financial Times. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
^ Samuel, Sigal (2019-12-02). "Want to fight climate change effectively? Here's where to donate your money". Vox. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
^ Piper, Kelsey (2019-06-13). "Is climate change an "existential threat" — or just a catastrophic one?". Vox. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
^ Neal, Meagan (2018-12-21). "It's hard to design good policies. This simple idea can help governments do it". Vox. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
^ Goth, Aidan; Hoeijmakers, Sjir (2020-09-25). "Psychedelic-Assisted Mental Health Treatments Executive Summary". Founders Pledge. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
^ Paynter, Ben (2018-09-25). "Why nonprofits should be courting entrepreneurs as donors". Fast Company. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
^ Schleifer, Theodore (2019-05-28). "MacKenzie Bezos signed the philanthropic commitment her ex-husband spurned". Vox. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
^ "Members". Founders Pledge. Retrieved 2019-12-16.

External links

Official website

[1] "Forbes". Retrieved 15 December 2019.

[Founders-Pledge-members-2] "Founders Pledge Homepage". Founders Pledge. Retrieved 12 May 2023.

[:0-3] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Bell, Douglas. "The Radical Founders Raising Billions For Charity - Is This A New Social Movement?". Forbes. Archived from the original on August 29, 2019. Retrieved 2019-12-15.

[4] Rovnick, Naomi (2016-05-06). "Wealthy millennials explore venture philanthropy". Financial Times. Retrieved 2019-12-16.

[5] Schultz, Abby. "The Age of Moonshots". www.barrons.com. Retrieved 2019-12-16.

[6] "About Us". Founders Pledge. Retrieved 2019-12-16.

[:1-7] "Home". Founders Pledge. Retrieved 2019-12-16.

[8] Volpicelli, Gian (2017-06-12). "Brent Hoberman left lastminute.com and formed an empire. This is how he did it". Wired UK. ISSN 1357-0978. Retrieved 2019-12-16.

[9] "One of the most exciting new effective altruist organizations: An interview with David Goldberg of the Founders Pledge". 80,000 Hours. 2015-11-26. Retrieved 2019-12-16.

[10] Marsden, Harriet; Fallon, Katy (2016-07-10). "More of the best New Radicals 2016". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-12-16.

[11] Shead, Sam. "Germany's multimillionaire startup founders are being encouraged to donate to worthwhile causes". Business Insider. Retrieved 2019-12-16.

[12] "Y Combinator signs up to Founders Pledge charity scheme for social causes". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-12-16.

[13] Partners, Forward (2018-02-07). "Our pre-seed termsheet". Medium. Retrieved 2019-12-16.

[14] Altman, Sam. "YC and Founders Pledge". Y Combinator. Retrieved 2019-12-16.

[Shead-15] Shead, Sam. "Facebook's little-known billionaire cofounder is funding a London charity". Business Insider. Retrieved 2019-12-16.

[16] "Founders Pledge — General Support". Open Philanthropy. 2016-10-14. Retrieved 2019-12-16.

[17] "Founders Pledge — General Support (2018)". Open Philanthropy. 2018-01-24. Retrieved 2019-12-16.

[18] "Community". Founders Pledge. Retrieved 2019-12-17.

[19] "How It Works". Founders Pledge. Retrieved 2019-12-17.

[20] "Research". Founders Pledge. Retrieved 2019-12-16.

[21] "The difficulty with the EU's sustainable investment rules". Financial Times. Retrieved 2019-12-16.

[22] Samuel, Sigal (2019-12-02). "Want to fight climate change effectively? Here's where to donate your money". Vox. Retrieved 2019-12-16.

[23] Piper, Kelsey (2019-06-13). "Is climate change an "existential threat" — or just a catastrophic one?". Vox. Retrieved 2019-12-16.

[24] Neal, Meagan (2018-12-21). "It's hard to design good policies. This simple idea can help governments do it". Vox. Retrieved 2019-12-16.

[25] Goth, Aidan; Hoeijmakers, Sjir (2020-09-25). "Psychedelic-Assisted Mental Health Treatments Executive Summary". Founders Pledge. Retrieved 2020-12-04.

[26] Paynter, Ben (2018-09-25). "Why nonprofits should be courting entrepreneurs as donors". Fast Company. Retrieved 2019-12-16.

[27] Schleifer, Theodore (2019-05-28). "MacKenzie Bezos signed the philanthropic commitment her ex-husband spurned". Vox. Retrieved 2019-12-16.

[28] "Members". Founders Pledge. Retrieved 2019-12-16.

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Founders Pledge

History

Activities

Research

Members

See also

References

External links

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