This CEO is the First Woman to Join Warren Buffett and Bill Gates in Giving Half Her Fortune to Charity

Sara Blakely is the CEO of Spanx, an Atlanta, Georgia-based company that manufactures pantyhose and other undergarments for women. At age 42, she is now worth $1 billion, according to Forbes, and has pledged to give at least half of her wealth to charity. She is among an elite group, including Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, who are committed to donating much of their wealth to charitable causes.

She once sold fax machines door-to-door

After graduating from Florida State University, Blakely once sold fax machines door-to-door. She began her research into making comfortable hosiery products and, using her life savings of $5,000, moved to Atlanta and began testing her products. By 2000, she was ready to open her business, starting in her own apartment. She is now in a position to give back and fulfill her lifetime goal to help women.

How Blakely is helping other women

Buffett and Gates started The Giving Pledge in 2010 by donating at least half of their fortunes to charities and philanthropic causes and encouraging others among America's wealthiest to do the same thing. The donations are pledges to give either during their lifetimes or in their wills. Blakely has joined in with her own pledge.

In addition, she has established the Sara Blakely Foundation to raise $20 million for women’s causes, and she has donated $1 million to Oprah Winfrey’s Leadership Academy for girls in South Africa.

What this teaches other women is that they, too, can become successful, and that so many successful women like Sara Blakely have a pay-it-forward attitude that makes them eager to help other women.

Thank you Sara Blakely!

Read more at money.cnn.com/2015/06/01/news/companies/giving-pledge-billionaires/