海角大神

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg鈥檚 announcement Tuesday that he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, will give away 99 percent of their company shares over their lifetimes was met with widespread praise. For one thing, it indicated how quickly Mr. Zuckerberg, in his early 30s, is ceding some of his time to charitable efforts. Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg, among others, pointed to Zuckerberg as a potential model for other would-be philanthropists.

But the pledge, while unique, is also symptomatic of a line of thinking about wealth and giving that is gaining ground. Namely, a small but growing contingent of America鈥檚 ultra-rich are not only committing the bulk of their wealth to philanthropic causes, but also pooling their talents and networks to find innovative ways to address a range of complicated social issues.

The move to pool resources stands in contrast to the approach of giving millions, carte blanche, to established charitable foundations. The shift, experts say, stems from a variety of factors, but boils down to some of the world鈥檚 richest members thinking about the role and utility of their wealth differently 鈥� and more broadly.

鈥淭here is more emphasis on leaving the world in a healthier state for this generation of billionaire donors,鈥� Melanie Ulle, CEO of Philanthropy Expert, a consulting firm that advises on the charitable efforts of major corporations, writes via e-mail. 鈥淭here is less emphasis on ensuring a personal legacy. Systemically, it is certainly a smarter investment to commit to the health and livelihood of the planet rather than the bank accounts of their progeny.鈥�

The billionaire you know

Zuckerberg鈥檚 commitment comes a few years after he became one of the first signers of the Giving Pledge, an initiative started by Mr. Gates and Warren Buffett in 2010 that challenges the world鈥檚 billionaires to promise to give away at least half of their fortunes. Mr. Buffett and Gates are the two richest men in America, and they say they鈥檝e recruited 187 billionaires to their cause to date.

If the public nature of such commitments seems more widespread, it鈥檚 because many billionaires themselves, especially in the United States, are more public figures than they were in previous decades. They run tech companies that are household names, own popular sports teams, and, at least in Zuckerberg鈥檚 case, share intimate details of their private lives online.

Also, there are a lot more of them. The world had a record 1,826 billionaires in 2015, 290 of whom were new billionaires this year, according to Forbes.

That combination of ever-greater wealth at the top and visibility means greater scrutiny in terms of where that money goes. Something like the Giving Pledge 鈥減uts giving in the spotlight and prompts other people to give,鈥� says Eileen Heisman, president and CEO of National Philanthropic Trust, whose home office is near Philadelphia.听

Giving as entrepreneurship

Additionally, Ms. Heisman says, the Giving Pledge has given rise to coalitions of wealthy individuals targeting specific issues. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 probably not the intention that Buffett and Gates had initially, but there鈥檚 power in having some of the best thinkers in the world working together and looking at social problems as a group.鈥�

On Monday, for instance, Gates announced the launch of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, teaming big names like Zuckerberg and Amazon鈥檚 Jeff Bezos with other billionaires interested in clean energy investment, including venture capitalist John Doerr, to fund early-stage research in clean energy.

Such efforts also speak to the entrepreneurial nature of this particular breed of philanthropy, and a blurring of the lines between straight philanthropy and corporate interest. Zuckerberg and Ms. Chan will make their contributions through a limited liability company, or an LLC, rather than through a 501(c)(3) charitable trust. This gives the flexibility to do things that pure charities can鈥檛, such as make for-profit investments and political donations and refocus investments when and where Zuckerberg sees fit.

Plus, 鈥渋t means he doesn鈥檛 get the big tax deduction that he would for a charitable donation,鈥� Heisman says, which means that the money is still in the economy. Laurene Powell Jobs, Steve Jobs鈥檚 widow, also makes her donations through a charitable LLC.

Such an approach isn鈥檛 without criticism. 鈥淢ost of the new generation of tech philanthropists believe that one can 鈥榙o well while doing good,鈥� 鈥� Erica Kohl-Arenas, an assistant professor of nonprofit management at the New School in New York, writes in an e-mail. 鈥淚n other words, they are very transparent about wanting to make money on their philanthropic investments, [but] most of them hope to do so while also ... advancing current capitalist systems that create the problems that they aim to serve.鈥�

鈥淭his is and has always been the grand paradox of philanthropy,鈥� she continues. 鈥淐an one truly address poverty, inequality, environmental and labor abuses while maintaining systems of production that produce inequality? For foundations that fund community based approaches to solving these problems it raises the question of whether working class organizing can be aided through the surplus of capital.鈥�

Indeed, one of Zuckerberg鈥檚 earliest charitable efforts, a $100 million donation to the impoverished public school system in Newark, N.J., is considered a failure that threw money at a problem without addressing the 鈥� something Zuckerberg himself has publicly acknowledged. But other efforts, including the Gates Foundation鈥檚 15 years of work to improve public health in poor regions of Africa, have had tangible success.

Heisman says it鈥檚 still too early to tell how much the efforts of people like Zuckerberg, Gates, and Buffett will ultimately move the needle, but the increased transparency could be a help.

鈥淭he coalition of private funders are going to be much more visible about their track record,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e have a more data-driven society, and they will want to showcase what they have achieved, and what they have learned.鈥�