Philanthropists: Top 10 charity donors
In December 2005, Time Magazine published the top 10 philanthropic gifts by individuals in 2004. Its source was The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
- 1. Bill Gates and Melinda Gates - with the mind-boggling figure of $3.35 billion
- 2. Susan Buffett, the wife of Warren Buffett with the almost as mind-boggling sum of $2.25 billion. Please remember these figures are based around 2004. After Susan passed away, Warren Buffett in June 2006, revealed that he was donating an incredible $37 billion (£20bn) to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
- 3. John M Templeton - $550 million
- 4. Caroline Wiess Law - $450 million
- 5. George D Cornell - $196 million
- 6. Leo A and Kay K Drey - $180 million
- 7. Pierre and Pam Omidyar - $173 million
- 8. Bernard Marcus - $161 million
- 9. Sidney E Frank - $142 million
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10. Michael Bloomberg - $138 million
A very interesting list is provided by Businessweek, which shows the 50 most generous philanthopists from 2000-2004.
Bill and Melinda Gates came first again, but second were Gordon and Betty Moore, fourth was George Soros, fifth were James and Virginia Stowers, sixth were Eli and Edythe Broad, seventh were Michael and Susan Dell, followed by Alfred Mann, Paul Allen and the Walton family (the family of the Wal-Mart family and not the big family who used to say good night to each other!).
The Businessweek table also provides details of what the lifetime donations were as a proportion of the donors' net worth. Intel Co-founder Gordon and Betty Moore, for example, have given in their lifetime roughly double their current net worth.
In passing, readers of this page may also be interested in the biography of the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.