The Most Charitable CEOs in the World

Philanthropy is welcome in a world of increasing inequality. Those who are more fortunate than most people across the globe have a unique opportunity to provide support through philanthropic organizations and actions. New initiatives are being set up by some of the richest people in the world to help support sectors from education to healthcare. Last year, Forbes reported that it was a record-setting year for billionaire philanthropy. 

Using some new data from 2020 and 2019, this list of charitable CEOs, here’s a short list of those billionaires who have given the most to charity around the world (so far).

Warren Buffet 

Berkshire Hathaway tycoon Warren Buffet ranked first on Forbes ranking of the world’s top philanthropists. Over the years, Warren Buffet has donated a whopping $40 billion in nonprofits to education, healthcare, AIDS-prevention, sanitation and more. That totals nearly 32 percent of his net worth. Much of these donations have been distributed through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He has promised to donate over 99 percent of his wealth over his lifetime. In 2010, Buffet and Bill Gates announced the formation of the Giving Pledge which asks billionaires to commit to donating at least half of their wealth to charitable causes over the course of their lifetime or after they have passed.

Bill Gates 

The founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates is also known for his philanthropic achievements, having established The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest private charitable organization, with his wife. After the outbreak of COVID-19, Gates announced the foundation would donate $300 million to fight the pandemic by funding treatment, detection devices and vaccine research. Gates has given away much of his stake in Microsoft, now owning just over 1% of shares and invested in numerous stocks and other assets. In March 2020, Gates stepped down as Microsoft’s board member to focus more on charity work. The Gates foundation seeks to improve global health and foster equal opportunities for people around the globe. Over the years, he has funded the foundation with over $38.5 billion of his Microsoft stock. Of course, that amount will rise as he is the cofounder of The Giving Pledge and is dedicated to donating most of his fortune to charity over the course of his life.

Azim Premji

Last year, Premji famously said, “To whom much has been given, much should be expected.” He wasn’t lying. In 2019, it was announced that Indian tech tycoon, Azim Premji, was donating $7.5 billion to his education fund, The Azim Premji Foundation. That marks a total of $21 billion that Premji has donated to education and marks 81 percent of his wealth toward philanthropic giving thus far in his life. Premji’s fortune, once valued at $22.6 billion, was reduced by 80 percent to $4.4 billion after the donation. He continues to own 7 percent of the stake in Wipro. The donation secures Premji’s spot as the fourth most generous philanthropist in the world.

Gordon Moore

Silicon Valley pioneer Gordon Moore is the cofounder of the semiconductor firm Intel, established in 1968. He headed the company as CEO from 1975 to 1987 and later served as chairman from 1979 to 1997. Moore is famous for his prediction that computer processing power would double every year, an insight known as "Moore's Law." As a result, he has a net worth of $10.3 billion. In 2000, Moore and his wife launched the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. It has over $6 billion in assets and provides $300 million in grants a year. The foundation supports environmental conservation, patient care, scientific research and numerous projects in the San Francisco Bay Area. Forbes ranked him as a top-tier impact investor for donating billions of dollars into his charity.

George Soros

A controversial figure in the field of politics and a celebrated hedge fund tycoon, George Soros, is known for managing billions in client money from 1969 to 2011. In 1992, Soros famously shorted the British pound and made a reported $1 billion. In 2018, Soros moved $18 billion from his family’s office to his Open Society Foundations, a global grantmaking network that reportedly supports education, public health, justice issues and independent media. Altogether his funds are worth $8.6 billion. If you measure George Soros’ charitable giving as a percentage of his net worth, perhaps surprisngly to many, he is the most generous giver on the Forbes Billionaires list. Over the course of his lifetime, he has donated 76 percent of his original fortune.