Michael Bloomberg, 83, topped the checklist of People who donated probably the most cash to nonprofits final 12 months, based on the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Philanthropy 50 checklist for 2024. It was the second 12 months in a row that Bloomberg led the checklist.
Bloomberg gave $3.7 billion to charitable causes in 2024 in help of the humanities, training, public well being teams, and metropolis authorities enchancment packages. He made his contributions instantly and thru his charitable group Bloomberg Philanthropies.
One sizable donation Bloomberg made was a $1 billion grant to Johns Hopkins College in July 2024 to cowl the price of medical faculty for college kids.
“I’ve by no means understood individuals who wait till they die to present away their wealth,” Bloomberg advised the Chronicle in an e mail. “Why deny your self the satisfaction? I have been very fortunate, and I am decided to do what I can to open doorways for others and to depart a greater world for my youngsters and grandchildren.”
Michael Bloomberg. Photographer: Lionel Ng/Bloomberg through Getty Pictures
5 different particular person donors or {couples} joined Bloomberg in gifting away $1 billion or extra final 12 months. They have been: Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings and his spouse Patty Quillin (second on the checklist), Dell Applied sciences founder Michael Dell and his spouse Susan Dell (third), Warren Buffett (fourth), Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his spouse Priscilla Chan (fifth), and retired pediatrics professor Ruth Gottesman (sixth).
The majority of the donations went to funds that supported causes like scientific analysis and training. Gottesman made a transfer much like Bloomberg’s by donating $1 billion to the Albert Einstein School of Medication in Bronx, New York in February to make the medical faculty tuition-free as of August 2024.
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The highest 50 donors on the checklist gave a collective $16.2 billion for philanthropic causes in 2024. The median quantity they gave was $100 million.
Paychex founder Thomas Golisano was the eighth most beneficiant donor on the checklist, gifting away $500 million in 2024. Most of his donations, or about $400 million, have been no-strings-attached contributions to over 100 nonprofits in New York and Florida. Certainly one of his areas of focus is organizations that help individuals with disabilities.
Former funding banker Okay. Lisa Yang (spouse of Broadcom CEO Hock E. Tan) was the thirty fourth donor on the checklist. She gave away $74.5 million this 12 months, principally to MIT and Cornell College. In February, Yang gave $35 million to Cornell School of Veterinary Medication’s Wildlife Middle to help wildlife conservation.
Enterprise capital investor Michele Kang (No. 28) donated $84 million in 2024, giving $4 million to the USA Girls’s Rugby staff.
The Philanthropy 50 rating has been working for 25 years. In that span of time, Buffett has been the largest donor, gifting away $49.4 billion.
Invoice Gates and Melinda French Gates have been second total, giving $34 billion collectively, whereas Bloomberg, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk have been third, fourth, and fifth respectively in total charitable contributions.
Bezos dedicated $10 billion in 2021 to the Bezos Earth Fund to guard nature and struggle local weather change whereas Musk has donated around $7 billion since 2020 to his group, The Musk Basis, which supports renewable power analysis and science and engineering training.
