Melinda Gates To Billionaires: “Give It Away”

Melinda French Gates, in a sit-down interview with Gayle King on on CBS Mornings, has a strong message for fellow billionaires.

While commenting on her philanthropy and philanthropy at large, she said—

“Giving away money your family will never need is not an especially noble act, I believe the only responsible thing to do with a fortune this size is give it away — as thoughtfully and impactfully as possible. The ultimate goal of any philanthropist should be to render the need for philanthropy obsolete.”

She continues—

“—if you are lucky enough to be a billionaire, believe me, you can give away half of it and not change your life. And we should. We should have a society where if for whatever reason wealth is in your hands, you put it back in society so that you change and you lift up others,” she added.

What a world we would live in, if wealth was put back into society like Melinda calls for.

Following her split from her ex-husband Bill Gates (which is also addressed in the interview), Melinda became a billionaire in her own right, with her net worth currently at $11.5 billion.

Listen to full interview above.