Billionaires Giving Back

While some fat cats like to use their money to buy an excess of yachts, Ferraris and mansions, others like to see their fortunes put to good use.

Billionaires Warren Buffet and Bill Gates have both pledged to donate more than half of their massive wealth to charity and are persuading others to make the same commitment through their promissory group, The Giving Pledge.

Here Buffet, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., and Gates, the chairman of Microsoft Corp., are pictured while flipping over Dairy Queen Blizzard treats at the branch opening in Beijing on Sept. 30, 2010. The popular dessert franchise is owned by Buffet.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is among 17 of America's richest people newly signed up to pledge their fortunes to charity. According to Forbes, the 26-year-old's fortune is worth $6.9 billion. Here, he is seen at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco on Nov. 16, 2010.

Zuckerberg Pledges Most of Fortune to Charity

Ted Forstmann is one of the founding partners of the leverage buyout firm, Forstmann Little & Co. and is the chairman and CEO of IMG, one of the world's largest talent agency's which represents Tiger Woods, Maria Sharapova and Gisele Bundchen. Here he is seen at an auction dinner at the American Museum of Natural History on Feb. 3, 2010 in New York City.

Also on the Giving Pledge list is director George Lucas, seen here at the 2010 Oscars Governors Ball at the Hollywood Highland Center in Hollywood, Calif., Nov. 13, 2010. According to Forbes, the "Star Wars" creator's net worth is around $3.5 billion.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, seen here delivering a keynote address at the 2010 Oracle Open World conference on Sept. 19, 2010, in San Francisco, has revealed that he intends to donate 95 percent of his wealth to charitable causes. According to Forbes, he is the sixth richest man in the world, with an estimated net worth of $28 billion.

Mike Coppola/Getty Images for National Museum of American Jewish History

Sidney Kimmel, pictured at the National Museum of American Jewish History opening gala on Nov. 13, 2010, in Philadelphia, is the chairman and founder of Jones Apparel Group, Inc.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, pictured speaking at the 20th Anniversary celebration of the Children's Defense Fund's Beat on Dec. 6, 2010, in New York, said he is "enthusiastically taking the Giving Pledge" and plans to give nearly all his net worth, which is estimated around $18 billion, away.

T. Boone Pickens, seen at Time magazine's Most Influential People in World Gala on May 5, 2009, in New York, is a Texas billionaire and the chairman and CEO of BP Capital LP. To date, he has given $800 million to a wide-range of charitable organizations.

Brad Barket/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival

Ronald O. Perelman is the chairman and CEO of MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc., a firm that owns Revlon, Scantron, and Scientific Games. Forbes estimated his net worth to be $11 billion. He is pictured during a press conference at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival on April 24, 2008, in New York.

Media tycoon Barry Diller and his wife, designer Diane von Furstenberg, have also committed to donating a large chunk of their massive fortunes to philanthropy. Here they are seen at a amfAR New York Gala on Feb. 10, 2010, in New York.

John Doerr, pictured at the Apple headquarters March 6, 2008 in Cupertino, is a Silicon Valley venture capitalist with the investment group, Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. His investments in dot-com stars Intuit, Amazon, Netscape and Google catapulted him to the billionaires' club. He is ranked 271 on Forbes' 400 Richest People in America list.

Nicolas Berggruen has also joined the Giving Pledge. He is the founder and chairman of Berggruen Holdings, a private investment company headquartered in New York. Here, Berggruen is seen at the German department store chain, Karstadt, in Berlin on Sept. 2, 2010.

Steve Case is the co-founder and former CEO of American Online. He is now the chairman of Case Foundation, and Revolultion, an investment firm that owns stakes in Zipcar, Exclusive Resorts, LivingSocial, among others. He and his wife, Jean Case, have vowed to give the majority of their wealth to fund worthy charitable causes.

Former CEO and chairman of Citigroup, Sanford Weill and his wife, Joan, pledged they "will continue to give away all of the wealth we have been so fortunate to make except for a small percentage allocated to our children and grandchildren." Here, Weill is seen at the 100th Anniversary celebrations of Citigroup in Shanghai, China, on March 21, 2002.

Irwin Mark Jacobs is the chairman and CEO of telecommunications giant Qualcomm Inc. Here, he testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Captiol Hill, Feb. 9, 2005. in Washington, D.C.

Jeff Skoll was the first president of Ebay. In 2004, he co-founded the independent movie production company, Participant Media. Here, he is seen at the "Waiting for Superman" premiere during the 35th Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 11, 2010, in Toronto.

Ted Turner, seen at the Clinton Global Initiative on Sept. 26, 2007, in New York, is one of the 57 billionaires who pledged to return the majority of his wealth to charitable causes. His estimated net worth is around $1.9 billion, according to Forbes.

Peter G. Peterson is the former chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He is also the cofounder of the Blackstone Group, a private investment banking firm. Here, he is seen at "The Week at Grand Central: A Series of Conversations" on Sept. 30, 2002, at Grand Central Terminal in New York.

Michael Milken, seen at the opening gala of "Unmasking" at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Sept. 25, 2010, in Los Angeles, has a legendary career on Wall Street for revolutionizing the market for high-yield bonds (also known as junk bonds) while working at Drexel Firestone, an investment banking firm. He also also heads the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen, who is estimated to be worth north of $20 billion, pledged that the "majority of my estate will be left to philanthropy." He is pictured speaking about the Allen Brain Atlas during a news conference on Capitol Hill, Sep. 26, 2006, in Washington, D.C.

Barron Hilton is the former chairman of the Hilton Hotel chains and one of the original owners of the San Diego Chargers football team. He is also the grandfather to socialites Paris and Nicky Hilton.

David Rockefeller, the patriarch of the Rockefeller family, has pledged to donate half his assets to philanthropy. Rockefeller, a former chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, now a part of JPMorgan Chase, is estimated to be worth $2.4 billion. According to Bloomberg new servce, the 91-year-old, seen at the Museum of Modern Art's 41st Annual Party on May 26, 2009, in New York, has already given away more than $900 million in his lifetime.

Financier Carl Icahn, seen at "David Moore's Funny Business Show" at Caroline's on Brodway, Nov. 2, 2005, in New York, is the chairman pf the holding company Icahn Enterprises. He has held various positions at RJR Nabisco, Texaco, Phillips Petroleum, Western Union, Gulf & Western, and Viacom, among others.

Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz — Kimberly White/Getty Images

Also taking the Giving Pledge is Dustin Moskovitz, the co-founder of Facebook. Here he delivers his keynoet address at the CTIA Wireliess I.T. and Entertainment conference, Oct. 24, 2007, in San Francisco.