Pioneering American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie once set the standard for giving back: "No man can become rich without himself enriching others," he said. "The man who dies rich dies disgraced."
Scores of the world's wealthiest people have taken to his philosophy, donating their riches to hundreds of causes.
We worked with our friends at Wealth-X, a firm that does research and valuations on ultra-high net worth individuals, to compile a list of the 20 most generous people in the world, ranked by total charitable giving to date.
Since you need to have a lot to give a lot, Wealth-X also determined each person's Generosity Index, which is the ratio of their lifetime donations to their current net worth. Some people, like retail magnate Chuck Feeney, known as the "James Bond of philanthropy," have indices over 100% because they have given away more money than they currently have.
With a total combined donation amount of $106.8 billion, these 20 individuals are the top philanthropists in the world.
20. Dietmar Hopp
Twenty years ago, Hopp established Dietmar Hopp Stiftung, a foundation that supports local education, sports, and health causes in his hometown in Germany, including the Heidelberg Institute for Stem Cell Technology and Experimental Medicine (HI-STEM), University Hospital Heidelberg, and the Nathalie Todenhofer Foundation.
19. Pierre Omidyar
In 1998, he and his wife, Pamela, established the Omidyar Foundation, an organization that now includes Omidyar Network, HopeLab, Humanity United, and Ulupono Initiative. The organization donates to a diverse range of causes, including entrepreneurship, human rights, food and energy, and games and technology. In 2012, Omidyar and his wife joined the Giving Pledge initiative started by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, promising to donate most of their wealth to charities.
In August 2015, Omidyar reportedly sold 10% of his shares in eBay to undisclosed charities — a stock gift valued at nearly $270 million.
18. Michael Dell
Earlier this year, the foundation pledged to donate $25 million to fund the construction of a new teaching hospital in Austin, Texas.
17. James Simons
Twenty-one years ago, Simons and his wife Marilyn established the Simons Foundation, which primarily supports educational causes. Since then, the couple has founded two additional organizations in memory of their two sons who died in 1996 and 2003: The Paul Simons Foundation gives to social and educational causes, and the Nick Simons Foundation trains rural healthcare workers in Nepal and gives to humanitarian and social causes.
Simons has also donated $30 million to autism research and has pledged to donate $100 million more.
16. Ted Turner
Turner also serves as trustee of the Turner Global Foundation and chairman of the Turner Foundation, which both donate to community development and environmental and wildlife conservation causes.
The UN Foundation is also a chief recipient of Turner's donations. In 1997 he pledged $1 billion to the foundation, which promotes causes related to women and population, children's health, environment, world peace, and security.
15. Jon Huntsman Sr.
Huntsman has reportedly survived prostate and mouth cancer and, as a result, established the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah. Many of his charitable donations have been to colleges and cancer-research centers. He and his wife also agreed to join Buffett's Giving Pledge, promising to donate 50% of their wealth.
14. Li Ka-shing
In 1980, he established the Li Ka-shing Foundation to support education, healthcare, culture, and community-related causes. The foundation's biggest project to date was funding Shantou University, the only privately funded public university in China. Li has also made personal donations to the China Foundation for Disabled Persons and flood-victim relief in China.
13. Mark Zuckerberg
Last year, Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla famously donated $25 million in the fight against Ebola. Through the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Zuckerberg gave $75 million to San Francisco General Hospital.
They're also focused on education: The pair gave $120 million to improve Bay Area schools, and before that, donated $100 million worth of Facebook shares to a New Jersey public-school system.
12. Paul Allen
As chairman of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, he's given millions to global-health causes, including $5 million to Seattle BioMed, $4 million to Global FinPrint, a conservation project focused on the preservation of sharks worldwide, and $7 million in grants to Alzheimer's research.
11. Michael Bloomberg
Most recently, Bloomberg launched a $42 million "What Works Cities" initiative aimed at helping 100 mid-sized cities to make better use of data and evidence through his philanthropic arm, Bloomberg Philanthropies.
10. George Kaiser
In 2010, Kaiser joined the Giving Pledge, vowing to donate half of his fortune to charity.
9. Eli Broad
The organization operates as two entities, The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and The Broad Art Foundation, both of which aim to improve communities and advance entrepreneurship.
A resident of California, Broad gives back to his home state — and the arts — through donations to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
8. Carlos Slim Helú
One of the richest self-made billionaires in the world and the chairman of Grupo Carso, Carlos Slim Helú's primary philanthropic efforts occur through his Fundación Carlos Slim Helú.
The foundation has invested $100 million in the World Wildlife Fund toward efforts to conserve Mexico's natural environment, and in 2012, it gave $3 million to help provide internet to Latino families living in the US, in addition to many other donations to international organizations.
Slim Helú also serves as chairman of the Telmex Foundation, which strives to improve the quality of life in Mexico, his home country.
7. Gordon Moore
The foundation aims to make an impact in environmental conservation, patient care, science, and the San Francisco community, and has wide-spanning programs that include everything from the Marine Conservation Initiative to the Thirty Meter Telescope.
6. Sulaiman bin Abdul Aziz Al Rajhi
But in 2013, he shifted his focus toward philanthropy and endowed his holdings in the bank to Sulaiman bin Abdul Aziz Al Rajhi Endowments Holding Company, which supports educational, religious, health, and social causes, including the Arab Institute for Arabic Language, National Guard Health Affairs, and the Sheikh Sulaiman bin Abdul Aziz Al Rajhi Mosque in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
5. Charles Francis Feeney
The Atlantic Philanthropies, Feeney's foundation, supports education, science, healthcare, and civil-rights causes across several countries, including the US, Vietnam, and Bermuda.
4. Azim Premji
The organization operates through Premji's earmarked Wipro stock, and has introduced initiatives such as the Computer Aided Learning program, which provides computer training in 18 languages, and Azim Premji University, a nonprofit university that awards degrees in teacher training.
3. George Soros
Open Society is best known for its focus on human rights. Soros' first act with the organization involved providing scholarships to black South Africans under apartheid.
2. Warren Buffett
In 2006, Buffett vowed to donate 85% of his wealth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as other foundations set up by family members.
And in 2011, the Oracle of Omaha partnered with Gates in creating the Giving Pledge, a program that commits wealthy individuals to donating a large percentage of their wealth to charitable causes.
1. Bill Gates
The foundation issues grants for initiatives and programs across the globe, focusing on agricultural development, emergency relief, global libraries, urban poverty, global health, and education.
Since its inception, the foundation has donated millions to organizations that include the GAVI Alliance; the World Health Organization; The Rotary Foundation; The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria; and UNICEF.
Source: Wealth-X
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