Michael Bloomberg, 83, topped the listing of People who donated probably the most cash to nonprofits final 12 months, based on the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Philanthropy 50 listing for 2024. It was the second 12 months in a row that Bloomberg led the listing.
Bloomberg gave $3.7 billion to charitable causes in 2024 in help of the humanities, schooling, public well being teams, and metropolis authorities enchancment applications. He made his contributions straight 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 students.
“I’ve by no means understood individuals who wait till they die to present away their wealth,” Bloomberg instructed the Chronicle in an electronic 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 Photographs
5 different particular person donors or {couples} joined Bloomberg in making a gift of $1 billion or extra final 12 months. They have been: Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings and his spouse Patty Quillin (second on the listing), 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 schooling. Gottesman made a transfer just like Bloomberg’s by donating $1 billion to the Albert Einstein Faculty of Drugs 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 listing 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 listing, making a gift of $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. Considered one of his areas of focus is organizations that help folks with disabilities.
Former funding banker Ok. Lisa Yang (spouse of Broadcom CEO Hock E. Tan) was the thirty fourth donor on the listing. She gave away $74.5 million this 12 months, largely to MIT and Cornell College. In February, Yang gave $35 million to Cornell Faculty of Veterinary Drugs’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 group.
The Philanthropy 50 rating has been operating for 25 years. In that span of time, Buffett has been the most important donor, making a gift of $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 battle local weather change whereas Musk has donated round $7 billion since 2020 to his group, The Musk Basis, which helps renewable power analysis and science and engineering schooling.
