A sneak peek into contemporary philanthropy: The case of The Giving Pledge

Abstract

UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are broad, ambitious and inspiring. While most of the investments for the achievement of the goals come from governments and inter-governmental organizations, an important part of the funding to advance on them come from philanthropists. The Giving Pledge is a commitment from the world’s wealthiest families to donate at least half of their fortunes, which currently has 190 signatories, giving to a wide range of causes. The aim of this paper is to examine the signatories’ causes of choice and establish how they are aligned with SDGs. Following a mixed methodology, we first conducted a content analysis on the letters the signatories submit when joining the Pledge to uncover elements that explain the incidence to support certain causes above others, drawing from self-presentation theory and the theories of reasoned action and planned behavior. Then, quantitative analysis results show that there is unequal private support for the achievement of the SDGs. As expected, tame challenges, such as those related to education, health and the preservation of the cultural heritage and the arts are the most supported. This is explained by a traditional and constructive approach to philanthropy.