It’s been a difficult few years for the Giving Pledge, the initiative that publicly commits billionaires to give a majority of their wealth to charity.

The project has lost momentum since it was founded in 2010 by Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. The pace of new signatories has slowed to a trickle. Coinbase cofounder Brian Armstrong unprecedentedly withdrew his pledge, and Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison announced he was “amending” his to include for-profit work. Most recently, Palantir cofounder Peter Thiel made waves earlier this month when he told the New York Times that he’s been counseling billionaires not to participate and even encouraging people to remove their names.

Now one recent signatory is speaking out against the growing backlash. Craigslist founder Craig Newmark published an op-ed in the Times on Monday defending the initiative and calling on billionaires to give their money away.

Newmark pushed back against criticism that the project funnels money to “woke” causes. “It’s bizarre to me that the pledge has now come under attack by some tech........

© Forbes