Top 10 Donors In The World

A charity is an organization put together to help those less fortunate whether it be humanitarian or environmental. Charity is considered the ultimate form of love in christian belief and in every religion. 

Charitable giving is the act of giving of money, good or time to the less fortunate. Either directly or through a charitable trust. Most forms of charity are concerned with providing basic necessities such as food, shelter and clothing. Donation to cause the benefit of the unfortunate indirectly, such as funding cancer research is also a form of charity.  

Top 10 Donors In The World 

Here is the list of the top 10 donors in the world:

1. Bill Gates 

Bill Gates is an American business tycoon, philanthropist, author and is also the co-founder of Microsoft. Bill Gates and Melinda Gates, his ex-wife, now started the “ Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation” in which they combined three family foundations. In 2013 it was named the world’s wealthiest charitable foundation by the Funds and NGO’s company and its assets valued at 34.6 billion dollars. The foundation allows the benefactors to view how they’re money is being spent unlike most foundations. Bill Gates  through his foundation donated 20 million dollars to Carnegie Mellon University for a new building named after him for computer science. He credits his generosity and philanthropy to David Rockefeller and partly modeled his work from the Rockefeller Foundations into his Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. 

2. Warren Buffett 

Warren Buffett is another business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He is the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is one the most successful investors in the world. He has pledged 99% of his inheritance to philanthropic causes through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He founded “The Giving Pledge” with Bill Gates in 2010 where many billionaires pledge half of their inheritance to charity. In 2011 President Barack Obama awarded Mr. Buffett with the “Presidential Medal of Freedom”. He has time and again mentioned that his children will not be inheriting a significant amount of his wealth. He    has long stated that he wants to give away his wealth to charity. He started  a foundation of his own in 2004 which he renamed to the “ Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation” in memory of his late wife. Her part of the estate valued at 2.6 billion dollars was donated to the foundation when she passed away. He auctioned his Lincoln Town Car in 2001 on eBay to raise money for Girls Inc. 

3. George Soros 

George Soros is a Hungarian-born American businessman and philanthropist. Forbes called him the “most generous giver”, his net worth stands at 8.6 billion US dollars of which he has donated more than 32 billion dollars to his Open Society Foundations. Mr. Soros has been an active philanthropist since the 1970s, he funded black students education at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and began funding dissident movements behind the Iron curtain. His philanthropic funding includes promoting non-violent democratization in post Soviet states. His efforts were focused on central and eastern europe through his open society foundation and national soros foundation. In September 2006, Mr.Soros pledged 50 million dollars to the Millennium Promise administered by Jeffersy Sachs, an economist, to provide medical, agricultural and medical aid to villages in South Africa suffering in poverty. He also played a key role in the transition from communism to democracy in Hungary and also provided a substantial endowment to the Central European University in Budapest. His Open Society Foundation has active programs in more than 60 countries. 

4. Azim Premji 

Azim Premji is an Indian businessman. He is the chairman of Wipro Limited. He is informally known as the Czar of the Indian IT industry. He is one of the wealthiest people in India. He agreed to donating more than half of his wealth by pledging his money to the Giving Pledge. He dropped from the 2nd to 17th place in the forbes wealthiest list after donating a chunk of his money to charity. He founded the Azim Premji Foundation in 2001 which is a non-profit organization. He made one of the largest donations in India to help improve the education in the country. In May 2020 the Azim Premji foundation collaborated with the National Center for Biological Sciences to help deal with the coronavirus pandemic. He donated Rs 79.4 billion in a single financial year. The main focus of most of his donations are towards helping the education system in India.

5. Charles Francis Feeney 

Charles Feeney also known as Chuck Feeney is a Irish American businessman and philanthropist who made his billions as the co-founder of Duty Free Shoppers Group based in Hong-kong. He is the founder of the Atlantic Philanthropic which is one of the largest private charitable foundations in the world. He has donated almost 8 billion dollars. The largest benefactor of Mr.Feeny is his alma mater Cornell University.  They have received donations directly and through the Atlantic foundation of 1 billion dollars. He became a signatory of the Giving Pledge. He gave the last of his billions to the same recipient of his first charitable donations  which is Cornell University. On September 14th 2020, Feeny closed down the Atlantic Philanthropic; he felt the foundation had accomplished its purpose of donating his money. 

6. Sulaiman Bin Abdul Aziz Al Rajhi 

Sulaiman Bin Abdul Aziz Al Rajhi is a billionaire and corporate figure. He pledged half of his fortune to charity for which he received an award in 2012. He started an islamic bank. His family is considered the wealthiest non-royal family in Saudi Arabia. He established a non-profit university in his hometown named the Sulaiman Al Rajhi University. The main focus of this university is Islamic banking and health.

7. Gordon Moore 

Gordon Moore is the co-founder and chairman of Intel corporation, the author of Moore’s law, an engineer and a businessman. He started the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation with his wife in 2001. The initial focus of the foundation conversation of the environment and the San Francisco Bay Area. The foundation supports major projects in the Andes-Amazon Basin. He and his wife donated 200 million dollars to Caltech and the University of California to build the Thirty Meter Telescope, which is estimated to be the second largest telescope in the world. Mr.Moore has been donating money through gifts and grants over the years to the University of California to various departments. The Moore’s have been large benefactors of Northern California Institutions, including universities such as Stanford University.  

8. Carlos Slim Helú

Carlos is a Mexican- American Business magnate and philanthropist. Although he’s been open about being skeptical about The Giving Pledge by Bill and Melinda Gates. He has pledged 4 billion US dollars to his own foundation, the Carlos Slim Foundation as of 2011. His foundation hasn’t gone as far as the Giving Pledge but he encourages entrepreneurs that more than just giving they should help with a solution to problems. Forbes named him the most generous philanthropist outside of the US in 2019. He founded three non-profit foundations in Mexico. Each of his foundations is dedicated to a particular cause Fudación Carlos Slim that  is dedicated to art, education and health care. His second foundation Fundación Telmex which is dedicated to sports and his third foundation is Fundación del centro histórica de la Ciudad México which is dedicated to downtown restoration in Mexico City. 

9. Eli Broad 

Eli Broad is known for his philanthropic work in K-12 education. Eli and Edythe Broad founded the Broad foundation and the Broad Art foundation. They’ve pledged 75% of their wealth to the Giving Pledge. In 2008 Broad donated 30 million dollars to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.he calls Los Angeles “the cultural capital of the world”. He has donated almost 1 billion dollars to the Los Angeles Art Institution. Since 2009  he has been active in funding firearm violence and gun control laws. 

10: George Kaiser 

George Kaiser the chairman of the bank of Oklahoma financial corporation and in 2012 was in the top 50 American philanthropists. Through the George Kaiser Family Foundation he promotes fighting childhood poverty. He also supports a Jewish community that houses 5000 people. He has also pledged his fortune to The Giving pledge. He donated 1.2 million dollars to the Tulsa community college and Oklahoma university to fund training programs. 

Summary 

The donations made by these people goes towards the betterment of society and the surrounding ecosystem. It is important to protect the less fortunate which includes the protection of the surrounding flora and fauna. Personalities like Bill Gates have donated massive sums of money to protect the environment, help the poor, educate the illiterate, build infrastructure for the unfortunate and help raise the standard of living across the globe.

India with its topographical diversity and income inequality finds itself as one of the prime candidates that receives many donations throughout the year. The article looks to shed light on the top donors across the globe and talks about some of their most charitable donations and the benefits induced by these donations. Much like these great people, the Sakal Relief Fund (SRF) is also an organization that collects charity and makes donations to help the less fortunate. For more information you can visit the SRF website.