Giving Pledge includes Next Gen members in annual gathering

The Giving Pledge is making a concentrated effort to include the children and grandchildren of its signatories—referred to as Next Gen—in its gatherings and processes, Forbes reports.

This year, Next Gen members were invited to the Giving Pledge’s annual gathering to collaborate and learn for the first time. The push to incorporate Next Gen members comes as Giving Pledge members are aging—nearly 50 of them are at least 80 years old—and the largest intergenerational transfer of wealth in history continues. Of the 242 Giving Pledge signatories, 22 have died, meaning their heirs are likely in charge of fulfilling the promise to donate at least half of their fortune.

The Next Gen group, which includes 300 members from around the world ranging in age from 21 to 75, is grappling with questions such as how to spend down family foundations and inheritance as well as the role of their children and partners in philanthropy.

“One of the greatest contributions of the Next Gen group is giving the [next generation] the support and the understanding that actually these conversations need to happen—because once [the Pledgers] are gone, you can’t have them,” said Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation president Katherine Lorenz, a granddaughter of the late natural gas billionaire, George P. Mitchell, who was an original signatory. “Often this pledge is something that children or grandchildren didn’t know was going to happen.”

Katherine Lorenz leads the Next-Gen Giving Pledge and is president of the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation. This story originally appeared in Candid's Philanthropy News Digest. Click here to read the aforementioned Forbes story.

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