She became a billionaire overnight after years as a hospice nurse. Now a philanthropist, she is challenging America’s richest ‘to redistribute’ their wealth

“We need to redistribute what we have that is too much,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press from her home in Silicon Valley.

While many say giving away a lot of money is hard, that is not Dageville’s perspective. Her advice is to just get started.

America’s wealthiest people have urged each other to give away more of their money since at least 1889, the year Andrew Carnegie published an essay entitled, “The Gospel of Wealth.” He argued that the richest should give away their fortunes within their lifetimes, in part to lessen the sting of growing inequality.

A whole industry of advisers, courses and charitable giving vehicles has grown to help facilitate donations from the wealthy, to some extent prompted by the Giving Pledge, an initiative housed at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2010, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates invited other billionaires to promise to give away half of their fortunes in their lifetimes or in their wills. So far, 244 have signed on.

So, what stands in the way of the wealthiest people giving more and giving faster?

What stops billionaires from giving?

Philanthropy advisers say some answers are structural, like finding the right vehicles and advisers, and some have to do with emotional and psychological factors, like negotiating with family members or wanting to look good in the eyes of their peers.

“It’s like a massive, perfect storm of behavioral barriers,” said Piyush Tantia, chief innovation officer at ideas42, who recently contributed to a report funded by the Gates Foundation looking at what holds the wealthiest donors back.

He points out that unlike everyday donors, who may give in response to an ask from a friend or family member, the wealthiest donors end up deliberating much more about where to give.

“We might think, ‘It’s a billionaire. Who cares about a hundred grand? They make that back in the next 15 minutes’,” he said. “But it doesn’t feel like that.”

His advice is to think about philanthropy as a portfolio, with different risk levels and strategies ideally working in concert. That way it’s less about the outcome of any…