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Top 7 Most Generous Billionaires

Generous Billionaires
The most generous billionaires prefer to start charitable institutes or foundations with experts to distribute their money to worthy causes. Some accept applications for grants; others prefer to seek out organizations. Keep reading to learn more about the top seven most generous billionaires.

Top 7 Most Generous Billionaires

  1. Bill Gates
    The co-founder of Microsoft is now the co-chairman and trustee of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, currently the wealthiest foundation in the world. Since 2000, the foundation has spent $36 billion on global health, disaster relief, poverty relief and more. It offers grants to a variety of nonprofits for-profits, and government agencies to carry out data-driven programs. The organization focuses on issues such as global health, such as vaccinations, malaria eradication and safe disposal of human waste.
  2. Chuck Feeney
    This entrepreneur and real estate mogul has earned the nickname “James Bond of Philanthropy.” He is an Irish-American who became a billionaire in the 60s and 70s. But in 1984, he agreed to sign away everything to his foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies. In 2003, he decided to spend his entire fortune in his lifetime, or, as he puts it, “giving while living.” Atlantic Philanthropies is currently in eight countries and has given away $8 billion to “promote fairness and equity for all.” Chuck Feeney’s generosity index (amount given versus current net worth) is 420,000 percent. The foundation is expected to close its doors in 2020 when he achieves his goal of giving everything away.
  3. Warren Buffett
    Warren Buffett is the most charitable billionaire in America, outranking even Bill Gates. He has given away $46 billion since 2000, about 71 percent of his fortune. The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named in honor of his late wife, pledged $150 million a year in grants to help disadvantaged women by making reproductive healthcare accessible, in addition to other social causes. He has created the now-famous Giving Pledge, in which he calls on generous billionaires to donate half their wealth.
  4. Azim Premji
    The chairman of information technology company Wipro, Azim Premji, dedicates his wealth to improving India’s primary education. Rather than distributing grants, Premji’s foundation, the Azim Premji Foundation, chooses to work with state and local governments to build schools, write curriculum, buy supplies and many other tasks.  He has given away $21 billion and reached 3.5 billion schools. When the foundation could not find enough teachers, Premji created the Azim Premji University to focus on education and development. His donations make him the most generous man in Indian history.
  5. Michael Bloomberg
    The founder and CEO of Bloomberg Media, Michael Bloomberg has given $6 billion through his foundation Bloomberg Philanthropies and has promised half his wealth to the Giving Pledge. His philanthropy is focused on five areas he is passionate about: the environment, public health, the arts, government innovation and education. He is particularly drawn to global warming and other issues, where others might refuse to act due to controversy.
  6. Sheikh Sulaiman bin Abdulaziz bin Saleh Al Rajhi
    Al Rajhi began his career in 1939 at age 10 as a kerosene seller. In 1957, he and his three brothers co-founded the Al Rajhi Bank. The bank saw great success during the oil boom of the 1970s. The family is currently Saudi Arabia’s richest non-royal family. His charitable institution currently funds 1,200 projects across the kingdom. He has given approximately $5.7 billion toward educational, health and religious causes.
  7. George Soros
    After nine years as a successful hedge fund manager, George Soros created his charitable Open Source Foundations. “Open society is based on the recognition that our understanding of the world is inherently imperfect…what is imperfect can be improved,” says Soros on the name of his foundation. His first venture started by offering scholarships to black South Africans and Eastern European dissidents at the University of Cape Town to study abroad. It is now the second-largest American charity, behind the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Soros has given $8 billion to Open Source Foundations.

According to Forbes, there are more than 2,000 billionaires in the world. Many only donate a nominal amount to charity. The generous billionaires on this list have been chosen not by the dollar amounts of their donations, but the percentage of their fortune they have given away.

In 2010, the Gates partnered with Warren Buffett to create the Giving Pledge, a commitment by wealthy individuals to give over half of their wealth away. The Pledge started with 40 individuals but has since grown to 190. Buffet stated, “More than 99 percent of my wealth will go to philanthropy during my lifetime or at death. Measured by dollars, this commitment is large. In a comparative sense, though, many individuals give more to others every day.”

– Jackie Mead
Photo: Google Images

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The Giving Pledge: Wealth to Philanthropy


At the end of May 2017, 14 of the richest people in the world joined a coalition of like-minded individuals in the Giving Pledge, an organization dedicated to providing a large portion of their fortunes to philanthropic endeavors.
The Giving Pledge was created by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett in 2010. It strives to offer encouragement to the world’s wealthiest to provide aid to causes that address the greatest issues society faces today.

With the addition of these 14 individuals, the Giving Pledge now has 168 signatories spanning 21 different countries who have committed their wealth. They are committed to being a multinational and multigenerational organization (with members ranging in age from 31 to 93) that spans both distance and time in order to promote philanthropic goals.

This new group of initiates joins the Giving Pledge from diverse regions around the globe including Tanzania, Cyprus, Australia, Slovenia, China and the United States. Though these individuals come from all corners of the world, their ultimate drive of providing aid to those in need gives them a common goal.

“Philanthropy is different around the world, but almost every culture has a long-standing tradition of giving back,” Melinda Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said.

The 14 new individuals that have dedicated themselves to the Giving Pledge are:

  • Leonard H. Ainsworth – Australia
  • Mohammed Dewji – Tanzania
  • Dagmar Dolby – United States
  • DONG Fangjun – People’s Republic of China
  • Anne Grete Eidsvig and Kjell Inge Rokke – Norway
  • Sir Stelios Haji-Loanno – Monaco, Cyprus
  • Nick and Leslie Hanauer – United States
  • Iza and Samo Login – Slovenia
  • Dean and Marianne Metopoulos – United States
  • Terry and Susan Ragon – United States
  • Nat Simmons and Laura Baxter-Simons – United States
  • Robert Fredrick Smith – United States
  • Harry H. Stine – United States
  • You Zhonghui – People’s Republic of China

“Bill and Warren and I are excited to welcome the new, very international group of philanthropists joining the Giving Pledge, and look forward to learning from their diverse experiences,” Melinda Gates said.

These new members will join other notable individuals, including Michael R. Bloomberg (founder and CEO of Bloomberg LC), Richard Branson (Virgin and its subsidiaries) and George Lucas (director and creator of Star Wars), in their philanthropic endeavors.

Signatories of the Giving Pledge meet throughout the year to discuss philanthropic strategies, successes and failures. The group does not require members to participate in any particular cause.

– Drew Hazzard

Photo: Flickr

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Donations from Billionaires: The Key to Ending Global Poverty?

Donations from billionaires
According to the Brookings Institute, in some developing nations the help of the richest billionaire in the country would be enough to drastically reduce poverty. This model is based on the respective billionaire donating at least half of their fortune.

For example, the generosity of just one billionaire would probably be enough to boost the economy of the tiny African country of Swaziland. If this model were applied in Swaziland, Colombia and Georgia, poverty within these struggling countries would be nearly eradicated.

It is worth noting that this ideology would not work in the same way in every country. While the poverty rate will always fall with donations from billionaires, the amount would vary. Some countries in Africa may be harder to impact significantly due to “the depth of poverty” and high prices on the continent.

The Brookings Institute model not only looks at potential donations from the richest billionaire in a country, but in places with multiple billionaires they could collaborate and work together to reduce poverty. The more donations from billionaires that are received, the more people who will rise above the global poverty line.

Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge, which encourages billionaires to give away much of their earnings to charity, follows a similar model. Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg also pledged to donate 99 percent of his income to poverty reducing efforts and other charitable campaigns.

In addition to donating, billionaires may also be wise to invest in poor nations, as a boost in the economy of the country would likely cause a major increase in the number of consumers of foreign goods and services. Stronger economies result in an increased number of markets.

If billionaires around the world chip in to boost their local economies, the global wealth gap will decrease as the amount of consumption.

– Carrie Robinson

Photo: Flickr

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Sir Richard Branson Makes Pledge to Give

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Sir Richard Branson and his wife, Joan, have joined a handful of billionaires who have pledged much of their wealth to charity. Branson joined Warren Buffett and Bill Gates as the latest billionaire to make such a pledge as part of The Giving Pledge, started by Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

Branson, the UK’s fourth richest person, whose net worth is estimated at $4.2 billion, declared half of his wealth to charity in an open letter in which he also said that he would like to use a majority of his wealth to “make a difference in the world” through “entrepreneurial approaches,” also saying that money and objects do not bring happiness.

The entrepreneur behind the Virgin Group of companies, Branson went on to state that he and his wife realized how little they valued material possessions after a series of disasters caused them to lose a number of personal items, including a house in London that burnt down and one in the British Virgin Islands that was struck by lightning.

Richard Branson asserted that he and his wife would like a portion of their fortune to go towards creating a “healthy, equitable and peaceful world for future generations to enjoy.” The Giving Pledge, started three years ago by Gates, has already seen a around 30 additional American billionaires pledge a good amount of their wealth to charity.

– Christina Kindlon

Photo: Time

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World’s Richest Grow: 210 More Billionaires in Past Year

Carlos_Slim_Billionaire
According to Forbes magazine’s annual list, the billionaires’ club has welcomed 210 new members within the last 12 months, despite the rising gap between the ultra-rich and the poor and as a global recession continues to linger. The number of the world’s billionaires has now reached an all-time high of 1,426 people, with the United States leading the list with 442 billionaires, and East Asia not far behind at 382.

The trend has alarmed economists and proponents for eradicating poverty, as the signs of wealth inequity worsening is confirmed with the growing fortunes of a small percentage of the world’s richest people.

The estimated wealth of the world’s billionaires is estimated at $5.4 trillion, having grown significantly from just one year ago when it was estimated at $4.6 trillion. This year, the collective wealth is “equal to more than a third of the annual output of the U.S., the world’s largest economy.”

Heading up the list is Mexican billionaire and telecom magnate Carlos Slim, whose estimated net worth is $73 billion, with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates taking the number two spot with a net worth of $67 billion.

American billionaire Warren Buffett, who has long neared the top of the list, fell out of the top three for the first time this year with an estimated net worth of $55.5 billion. Spanish businessman Amancio Ortega took Buffett’s place at third, as the founder of the company behind the Zara clothing line and retail stores. Ortega’s net worth jumped to $57 billion within the last year, the highest rise of any on the list with an additional $19.5 billion added in the last 12 months, as Spain continues to struggle through a recession with a 55% youth unemployment rate.

Frances O’Grady, of the Trade Union Congress of the UK, called the results of the Forbes study “disturbing” and added that a huge contributor to the global recession was increasing levels of wage inequality. He also stated that in order for the economy to recover, wealth needs to be distributed more equally so consumer spending can increase.

Although Buffett dropped out of the top three richest, the rest of the members remain familiar faces on the annual list, with eight of the top 10 being aged 70 or older. The number of women billionaires also increased this year, up to 138 from 104.

– Christina Kindlon

Source: The Guardian
Photo: CNN

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World’s 100 Richest People Could End Global Poverty

Billionaires_end_poverty_Warren_buffett
According to Oxfam, an international NGO committed to fighting poverty, the money made by the world’s top 100 billionaires in the last year alone could end global poverty four times over.

Oxfam asserts that the wealth amassed by the world’s richest is encouraging inequality and deepening a divide between those in abject poverty and the rest of the world – making it even more difficult to end poverty once and for all. They assert that the world’s rich are getting richer at the expense of those in extreme poverty, and that the $240 billion that was collected in 2012 by the wealthiest 100 billionaires could end global poverty four times over.

Although a few American billionaires have already pledged to donate much of their wealth back into the public sphere, including Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, the exact figure has not been disclosed, and foreign billionaires have not made any such pledge to match those given by Gates and Buffet.

The Chief Executive for Oxfam GB Barbara Stocking cites a report that will be unveiled at the upcoming World Economic Forum. The report, titled “The Cost of Inequality: How Wealth and Income Extremes Hurt Us All”, found that within the last 20 years, the wealthiest 1% have increased their wealth by 60%. Stocking points out that this trend has led to extreme poverty as low-income earners have taken home an even smaller share of the total income as the rich get richer, which has also stifled growth and investment.

The report states that this trend has affected even Westernized countries, citing levels of high income inequality in the UK and South Africa. The report points out that top earners in China own over 60% of the overall income, similar to the situation in South Africa, where income inequality has risen even past levels seen at the end of apartheid.

Income inequality also persists across the United States, where the portion of total national income going to the top 1% has doubled within the last 30 years – the top 1% now take home 20% of the national income.

Oxfam is urging global leaders to committ to lowering income inequality levels to those seen in the 1990s, and Stocking asserts that doing away with tax havens, which reportedly would create $189 billion in additional tax revenues, would help alleviate the problem.

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund have taken a similar stance, saying that income inequality hinders development and growth, and say that they aim to fund projects that limit the perpetual cycle of inequality.

– Christina Mattos Kindlon

Source: The Guardian