Goldman Sachs considers compulsory donations

Investment bank Goldman Sachs is looking at the possibility of introducing a scheme to make its top earners give a certain percentage of their earnings to charity, according to an article in the New York Times.

The move appears to be intended to ‘soften criticism’ over the size of its year-end bonuses, widely reported earlier in January worldwide.

As the average salary at Goldman Sachs is thought to be around US$595,000, it looks as though hundreds of millions of dollars could be given each year. GS has 5,500 staff in London alone.

According to an article in Philanthropy UK, the Institute of Fundraising in the UK is not in favour of this mandatory approach. “Making it [giving] mandatory in this way could reduce goodwill, could lead to a reduction in donations (ie if people are forced to give X amount, maybe they would normally give more, but won’t now), plus it could cut off other options people may choose to do such as sponsored events,” said director of policy and campaigns Louise Richards.