The $600 Billion Challenge: Time for Steve Jobs to Start Donating

by Charlotte Hill · 2010-06-25 14:00:00 UTC
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In May 2009, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates held a private dinner in New York City. The guests? 14 American billionaires. The goal? To get these and other billionaires to commit to donating at least half of their wealth to charity. All this week, Change.org is asking billionaires to step up to the challenge. See our posts targeting Oprah, Larry Ellison, the Walton family and Paul Allen here, here, here and here.

"Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful ... that's what matters to me." — Steve Jobs

If Bill Gates' technological achievements may someday be overshadowed by his record-breaking charitable giving, then perhaps the computer innovations of Gates' main competitor, Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs, will eventually be eclipsed by his streamlined personal style.

From his simple clothing — almost always a black turtleneck and pair of blue jeans — to his clean-cut computer designs, Jobs exudes minimalism. This commitment to sparsity apparently extends to the computer mogul's charitable giving, which, unless Jobs is shelling out the dough behind closed doors, amounts to roughly zero dollars. That's right — Steve Jobs, worth $5.1 billion, has no public record of philanthropy.

Well, almost no record. There was that one time, way back in 1987, when Jobs decided on a whim to launch the Steven P. Jobs Foundation. "But the Jobs foundation never did much of anything," writes Peter Elkind at Fortune, "besides hiring famed graphic designer Paul Rand to design its logo." Just fifteen months later, the ill-fated foundation shut its doors for good.

It's high time the minimalist CEO became a magnanimous philanthropist. As the 43rd richest person in the United States, Jobs is a prime target for Bill Gates and Warren Buffett's "Giving Pledge," which asks billionaires from coast to coast to donate 50 percent of their wealth to charity.

Jobs may be out of touch with making big donations, but what better time to start giving than the present, especially with 40 million poor Americans struggling to make ends meet? Tell Steve Jobs to make up for lost time and join the "Giving Pledge" today.

Photo credit: Tom Coates

Charlotte Hill currently serves as the social media fellow for EARN, a California nonprofit that helps low-income workers save money to create long-term prosperity.

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