Business
Hundreds of billionaires pledged to give away $600 billion to charity—but the Bill Gates and Warren Buffett era of philanthropy may be over
Bill Gates and Warren Buffett ushered in a new Gilded Era of philanthropic giving, likened in influence to the Rockefellers and Carnegies. But charity work is about to look very different as higher taxes are threatened on liberal institutions, and new methods of giving are popularized by women mega-donors. MacKenzie Scott has become a pioneer in the cultural shift, gifting more than $200 million to HBCUs and charitable causes in recent months.
Earlier this year, the world of philanthropy was shaken up when Gates announced that he would be sunsetting his foundation, giving away $200 billion by 2045 and expediting the plan to shed his $100 billion personal fortune.
“There’s an air of anticipation in terms of if and how people are going to follow in his footsteps,” Amir Pasic, dean of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University, told Fortune in May.
And with prolific 94-year-old philanthropist Buffett departing from the helm of Berkshire Hathaway at the end of this year, even more change is expected. His Giving Pledge, signed by more than 250 billionaires across 30 countries who reportedly pledge a pool of at least $600 billion, opened the hearts and pockets of the ultra-rich. But the question arises if billionaires will pick up the torch and stay true to their promises once Buffett inevitably parts from the pledge’s limelight.
Experts agreed a shift is on the horizon—but that doesn’t mean a screeching halt to philanthropy altogether. In fact, it could open the door for a more diverse group of donors to take the lead.
“We’re likely to see more women come out of the shadows,” Pasic predicted.
How philanthropy will look in a new era
Many billionaires have started foundations as a way to channel their philanthropic efforts, but a recent decision from the U.S. House of Representatives may upend that practice. This May, a budget reconciliation package was approved, which stipulated a tax of 10% on foundations with more than $5 billion in assets.
“The reason this is insidious is that it’s going to really hit the big liberal foundations like Gates, Ford, and Soros,” Kathleen McCarthy, director for the center on philanthropy at CUNY, told Fortune earlier this year. “Whereas the conservative foundations are much smaller and they will pay a much lower rate.”
Thousands of liberal foundations led by billionaires including Gates, Scott, George Soros, and Mark Zuckerberg could be hit hard by these tax hikes. This could entirely change how billionaires approach philanthropy.
“[Billionaires] will start looking at alternative mechanisms once they realize that they’re going to be forced to sunset foundations,” McCarthy said. “That’s what’s being jeopardized right now.”
But some ultrawealthy donors are already rewriting the rules. Scott’s “stealth giving” practice entails giving unrestricted money directly to nonprofits, trusting them to handle the funds as they see fit, with no strings attached.
According to McCarthy, as billionaires are driven away from the foundation-based model, they are pulled toward alternative ways of giving. This includes being inspired by Scott’s inconspicuous and direct donation strategy as a way to get around new tax policies.
“I think she’s a trendsetter and sort of moral ballast to the way that Gates has been,” Bella DeVaan, associate director of the charity reform initiative at the Institute for Policy Studies, told Fortune. “I do see that being not just a trend, but shifting common sense toward trust-based philanthropy.”
Scott donates through her Yield Giving foundation, which has distributed more than $19.25 billion to date across 2,450 nonprofits, and experts said billionaires could be inspired by direct donating. DeVaan also predicted that Melinda French Gates will be a pioneer of the philanthropic LLC, an alternative to traditional foundations.
Charity specialists have pulled on a common thread of who is innovating philanthropy, and how the general makeup of mega-donors is changing: Women are in the spotlight. With more than 200 new billionaires minted in 2024 alone, nearly four every week, more players are entering the field and some women are stepping into immense wealth. The status quo of philanthropy is changing, and women are front and center.
Women are becoming the new philanthropic frontrunners
When tasked with naming the rising stars of philanthropy to fill the big shoes of Gates and Buffett, experts have already pointed out few frontrunners. The one person on everyone’s mind: charitable vagabond MacKenzie Scott.
This past Sunday, historically Black college Howard University shared Scott had donated $80 million—one of the biggest single donations in its 158-year history. In September, Scott also gave $70 million to UNCF, America’s largest private provider of scholarships to Black students, as part of a $1 billion campaign. She’s also fighting Trump’s budget cuts to FEMA, as the Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP) announced last month it received a $60 million gift from Scott to support struggling communities that are crippled by natural disasters.
“This is a woman making a pretty bold statement about how she’s going to give her money away: by trusting the recipients, and not asking for any reporting back,” Pasic said. “She’s in contrast to the very technocratic way that Bill Gates has approached matters.”
Experts also threw out names like French Gates, who also played a pivotal role in the Gates Foundation and continues to be a leading voice in giving. Meanwhile, Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan are pouring out money to innovate human health. They also note that women have long been benevolent philanthropists, only behind the scenes; Madam C.J. Walker, an African American woman who became the first self-made female millionaire, was a prominent donor at the turn of the 20th century.
And in 2025—when U.S. women have even more access to wealth and power than ever before—this group will only be supercharged.
“You’ll see women becoming much more prominent mega-donors,” McCarthy said. “They’re very comfortable handling money. They’re very comfortable doing research, and they’re looking for ways to change the system.”
A version of this story originally published on Fortune.com on May 24, 2025.
Are you donating your wealth, or planning to give it away? Fortune wants to hear from you! Reach out at emma.burleigh@fortune.com
