Marty Levine
March 29, 2026
“America’s biggest donors gave $22.4 billion in 2025. “ The Chronicle of Philanthropy, March 10, 2026
The Billionaire Backlash Against a Philanthropic Dream. The Giving Pledge, once trendy among the world’s richest, has come upon hard times. The New York Times, March 16, 2026
“‘Modern-Day Royalty’: 50 Billionaire Families Have Already Pumped Over $430 Million Into Midterms” Common Dreams, March 25, 2026
With Donald Trump and his MAGA movement in power, I think understanding what very wealthy people are doing with their money is more important than at any time since I began writing about modern philanthropy 15 years ago. Since January 20, 2025, when Trump took the oath of office to begin his second term, the nation has seen a MAGA assault on its already frayed social safety net, weakening it further and leaving growing numbers of Americans struggling to meet basic needs, dependent on friends, family and charity to get by. And Trump’s love of tariffs and wars has made the situation even more difficult. In comments to Politifact, Chi Chi Wu, a staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, made this very clear: “For tens of millions of Americans, balancing the budget is like walking a tightrope. The Trump administration is just throwing them off.”
As I prepare to celebrate the Passover Holiday, I am reminded of a teaching that I learned from Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz that speaks to the role that can and should be played by those fortunate enough to be wealthy:
Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Linsk taught a lesson that resonates in our world and nation of growing economic disparity:
Maimonides in the laws of Passover, rules that even the poorest of the poor must eat matzah and drink four cups of wine at the Seder.
Yet in another place, Maimonides rules that theft, cheating and swindling are all forbidden by Torah law and cannot be condoned under any circumstances.
We are now faced by a question: What should a poor person do who simply cannot afford to buy matzah honestly and who is forbidden to do so dishonestly?
The greatest scholars cannot reconcile the contradiction between the two laws brought by Maimonides, but the wealthy people of the city can do so!
Let the wealthy contribute generously and in this way the contradiction between the two laws will be automatically reconciled!
So, in this moment of national need, how are the wealthiest among us using their wealth? Are they heeding Rabbi Steinsaltz’s teaching?
With few exceptions, it seems they are not responding to the day-to-day challenges of their neighbors. Rather they are focused on their own needs and interests.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s headline told us that the 50 largest givers had donated a total of $22.4 billion last year. But, of that, 13.4 billion (60%!) was given, not to operating charities, but to put in the coffers of Foundations and Donor Advised Funds, often controlled by the donor; by doing that the donor gets the benefit of being seen as being a good, responsible, “charitable” person and immediately benefits from the tax benefits our current laws provides for them. As I have written so many times, they get all of the benefits without actually benefiting anyone but themselves.
Of the remaining 40% that did not go into charitable holding cells, little was given to organizations responding to food insecurity, the housing crisis, or ensuring people have access to affordable health care. Most ended up in the endowment funds of universities, hospitals, and research organizations.
39 of the 50 wealthiest families in the United States, according to Forbes, do not give enough to be on the list of 50 largest donors! That includes the world’s richest person, Elon Musk. Consider that the 50th person on that list, Jerry Jones, is estimated to have wealth totaling more than $19 billion. The smallest gift among the top 50 donors was $50 million or a .25% of Mr. Jones’ wealth, or .01% of Mr. Musk’s.
One can only conclude that the richest among us, those who have benefitted most from the policies of the MAGA movement, are not hearing the call, “Let the wealthy contribute generously.”
In 2010, two of the wealthiest among us, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, brought forward “The Giving Pledge”. They committed to giving away at least half of their wealth and recruited others among the mega-rich to join them in the commitment. It was trendy, and the list of “pledgers” grew with much fanfare. But today, as the New York Times story tells us, that moment has passed and the mega-rich are walking away from meeting this charitable obligation.
Over the last two years, there has been a growing backlash from the billionaires who are its target donors. One of its first signers suggested he was “amending” his pledge to account for his for-profit ventures. Another signed it, and then, in an occurrence without precedent, unsigned it.
No Oval Office visits anymore: President Trump’s team describes the Pledge as almost a punchline. There’s even a quiet campaign by one pro-Trump tech billionaire to destroy it. Instead of signing up for nonpartisan philanthropy, some billionaires seeking impact are looking for a more direct route, spending more than ever on American elections…
Aaron Horvath, a sociologist who has studied the Giving Pledge, called it a “time capsule” of that 2010 era. “It feels old school,” he said. Billionaires, he said, now think: “I can keep my head down and keep making money. I don’t have to put up with this charity charade anymore…”
“The value proposition has changed because the erosion of general trust, the polarization of everything over the last years,” said Tom Tierney, who advises wealthy donors at Bridgespan, one of the nonprofit sector’s blue-chip advisory firms, and is on the board of the Gates Foundation. “You’re more likely to be criticized for giving large amounts of money away now than praised.”
With few constraints on how one can spend money politically, spending that can be used to shape public policy to protect one’s wealth, political donations are growing for the wealthiest.
The progressive advocacy group Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) released an analysis on Wednesday examining the most recent Federal Election Commission data, which underscores increasingly aggressive billionaire efforts to use their immense wealth to secure their favored political outcomes. In the 2024 federal elections, billionaires accounted for nearly 20% of all donations.
Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, tops the list of 2026 campaign spenders so far, donating roughly $71 million…Behind Musk is businessman Jeff Yass, a relatively low-profile billionaire who has spent millions in recent years promoting school privatization. Yass has so far spent $55 million in the 2026 midterm cycle, $16 million of which went to MAGA Inc.—the largest recipient of the billionaire’s donations.
Combined, the 50 top-spending billionaire families—which ATF describes as “modern-day royalty”—have poured $433 million into the 2026 midterms to date.
Billionaires are on track to break their $1 billion midterm spending record…The spending is projected to grow exponentially as November approaches.
Interestingly, none of the 50 largest political donors is also one of the 50 largest philanthropists.
Our society’s problems will not be solved by the generosity of the wealthy.
Our society’s problems may be solved by better public policy. One strategy: taxing the wealthy so that they annually pay their fair share and making it hard for such enormous wealth to be accumulated by individuals. Then, using the funds we can generate to create a strong safety net.
We know it can be done. Do we have the will to do it? That I do not know.
