Bloomberg Among Top Donors Who Give Largest Share of Wealth to Charity
Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Michael Bloomberg are the three most generous donors among the 10 richest people in America, according to new analysis by The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Out of those three multibillionaires, the master investor, Mr. Buffett, comes out on top as the most generous, having given 71 percent of his wealth to charity since 2000.
Mr. Buffett is followed by his good friend Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder and the wealthiest person on the Forbes list, with a fortune pegged at $81 billion. Mr. Gates and his wife, Melinda, have given 22 percent of their wealth to charity in the past 17 years.
The three have a close association. Mr. Buffett pledged more than $36 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2006, and the three friends joined forces a number of years ago to establish the Giving Pledge, an effort to encourage the world’s richest people to contribute most of their wealth to charity.
Meanwhile, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg comes in third for giving more than 10 percent of his fortune to charity since 2000. . .