Giving Compass' Take:

• Ivan Amato at Medium writes on ways that philanthropists, particularly high net worth ones, can help humanity tackle some of the most important challenges of the 21st century with their donations. 

• How can we leverage partnerships from high-net-worth donors that can help industries such as global development? Are there more donors concentrated in one area of giving/fundraising?

• Read more about how the ultra-high net worth individuals are giving. 

Let’s start with some billionaire math.

Some 2000 ultra-wealthy households in the United States each hold more than $500 million in assets. This deepest-pocketed demographic controls about $3.7 trillion dollars. In 2017, these wealthiest of Americans donated about $45 billion to charity, translating into an annual charitable giving rate of about 1.2% of their assets. Meanwhile, the vast assets of those same individuals likely grew at a rate that matched or exceeded the S&P 500’s 9% average rate of return over the past 20 years. Even if the country’s wealthiest households donated seven times what they do now, their assets would still continue to grow rather than shrink. As of May, more than 200 billionaires had signed the Buffett-Gates Giving Pledge and committed to donate half of their wealth to charitable causes, but they would have to dial up their annual rate of donation to 11% — more than nine times their average current giving rate — to comply within their lifetimes.

“Wealth is piling up and people are not giving as fast as they might,” says Sue Merrilees , a senior advisor with the Science Philanthropy Alliance, a Palo Alto, California-based nonprofit philanthropy advisory group. The Alliance was established in 2013 to help those of considerable means — often known in this sphere as high net worth individuals (HNWI) — give in ways that further scientific causes they care about.

Read the full article about moonshot philanthropy by Ivan Amato at Medium.