There are charities all over the world that work tirelessly around the clock to raise awareness, create campaigns and source money for those in need. In fact, according to the NCCS, there are more than 1.5 million nonprofit organizations registered in the U.S, which are made up of ‘public charities, private foundations, and other types of nonprofit organizations, including chambers of commerce, fraternal organizations and civic leagues’.
However, it remains that philanthropists can come in a variety of measures: some can contribute small amounts of their income on an ad-hoc basis, others can become philanthropy ambassadors or founders of their own charities and dedicate their life to raising money.
There are some very generous philanthropists in the world who give away a very large percentage of their worth, but if we take how much these donors are worth into account, we can see the true value of philanthropy. It’s been well documented that Warren Buffet aims to give away 99% of his fortune to philanthropic causes before he dies and, as he’s currently said to be worth nearly $86 billion, this could be in the region of $85 billion that he’s committed to giving back.
This passion for philanthropy led Buffet to create The Giving Pledge – an initiative that encourages world’s wealthiest individuals and families to dedicate the majority of their wealth to giving back – with Bill and Melinda Gates. The couple are both hugely successful in the eyes of the public, and they give away the majority of their net worth in order to raise money for those in need.
According to research carried out by RS Components, the most generous philanthropist in the world was Henry Hillman – once a billionaire businessman and inventor. Hillman donated $850 million to charity alone, before he passed away in 2017 at the age of 98 – that’s just under a third (32.69%) of his total net worth, which is $2.6 billion.
Following Henry Hillman is George Soros, an investor, philanthropist, political activist and author with a net worth of $8 billion. He donated $531 million of his money to charity – 6.63% of a net worth of that value is, unarguably, a lot to give away out of the goodness of one’s own heart.
Bill and Melinda Gates have the highest net worth of the list, coming in at $110 billion. Their foundation which launched in 2000 and is set to be one of the biggest foundations in the US. In 2017 alone, the Gates’ donated $4.8 billion to their charity which is 4.34% of their net worth – whilst this may sound like a very small percentage, it’s over 10% of what America has available for its national aid budget ($31.08 billion).
Into the social media world, Mark Zuckerberg – famously known for founding Facebook – and his wife Priscilla Chan have always been heavily involved in charity work. In 2015, they pledged to donate 99% of their Facebook shares into the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and, with a combined net worth of $89 billion, they also contributed $2 billion to other charities in 2017.
Where would the world be without these generous philanthropists? Take a look at this infographic to find out who is amongst the most generous philanthropists in the world.
