This year’s new Giving Pledge philanthropists include Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht,co-founders of design platform Canva;Tony Xu,the CEO and co-founder of DoorDash,and his wife,Patti Bao;and Ben Silbermann,CEO and co-founder of Pinterest,and his wife,Divya.
Perkins and Obrecht,who got married at the start of this year,hold a 30 per cent stake - valued at over $16 billion - in Canva. The Sydney-based company,set up to allow anyone to easily design products such as greeting cards,posters,websites and presentation slides,has become the world’s fifth most valuable startup after TikTok owner ByteDance,payments fintech Stripe,Elon Musk’s space travel venture SpaceX and buy now,pay later firm Klarna Bank,data from research firm CB Insights shows.
“Billions upon billions of dollars is more than anyone needs in their entire lifetime by a longshot,” Perkins said in an interview earlier this year. “It’s not often that you have the right idea,at the right time with the right,incredible team,and with the right investors who believe in your vision.”
Jon Ayers,former CEO of veterinary services firm IDEXX Laboratories and current chairman of Panthera,the global wild cat conservation organisation,also signed the pledge with his wife,Helaine. He said they wanted to learn from other philanthropists to be more effective with donations.
“I think it’s a commitment of not just money,but it’s a commitment of time to be good,” said Ayers,65. “I think it’s a very,very important responsibility.”