William “Bill” Gates III and Warren Buffet – - – who haven’t heard of them? Not just two very familiar names in the annual list of the Richest Men in America, they are in fact the first two who topped the roster. Their names dominated the 2^nd and 3^rd post in Forbes’ list of Richest Men in the World as well. For a good cause, the two wealthy guys came together and in attempts to do something good for their fellowmen, both had committed most of their own money to charity. But it’s doesn’t end there, they are making efforts to invite the rest of their rich friends to join the good deed. Gates and Buffet plans to convince the world’s billionaires, starting with the Forbes 400 (400 Richest Americans) and have them commit at least 50% of their net worth, either during their lifetime or death.

If both would succeed in convincing their rich friends to share their fortune, the donations are estimated to reach around $600 Billion from donations from the Forbes 400 alone. Fortune Magazine, who covered the story since the team jump-started their project in May of 2009, calls it “the biggest fund-raising drive in history”. And indeed it is, just imagine how much wealth they can amass if the rest of the world’s billionaires will put in their share. As mentioned, Gates and Buffet began this project last year through a secret dinner hosted by David Rockefeller in New York attended exclusively by billionaires including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, queen of talk show Oprah Winfrey, media mogul Ted Turner and hedge fund guru George Soros among the many. During the party, each guest had their chance to come up and speak before everyone about their personal views on philanthropy and their intention to share.

Such important night was followed by two more secret dinners where the high profile group worked more extensively to put their plans into shape. It was decided that the participants will pledge 50% of their net worth, though Buffet took it a step further and committed 99% of his wealth. Many who had been to the dinner are said to have pledged on the 50% commitment to charitable cause.

A web site was put up to give credit to their effort (givingpledge.org), sending out a message to everyone else the moral commitment to give. Though the key participants of the program are billionaires, the main intention of putting up the site is to inspire people from all walks of life, education, orientation, age and status to give out their share in the efforts to extents they find most reasonable. The positive example set by the Buffet and Gates, along with the rest of America’s wealthy who committed to the good cause, will surely go a long way and is a clear definition of making the world a better place. A potentially good effort, let’s all hope something positive comes out of it.