Billionaires raked in billions more in 2020, but a new report shows they weren't as generous when it comes to charitable donations.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy is out with its annual ranking of top charitable contributions. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pledged $10-billion of his personal fortune to help fight climate change. The donation comes as his net worth grew by $70-billion between March and December thanks to a business boom fueled by the pandemic.
According to The Observer, the Chronicle found that the sum of the second through tenth-largest contributions totaled $2.6-billion, the lowest level since 2011.
The Chronicle's annual list was missing two very big names. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, whose fortune grew by more than $100-billoin last year had no record of making any major charitable donations. Microsoft founder Bill Gates was also missing from the list, but he's likely to appear in next month's ranking of individuals total contributions in 2020, not single gifts.
On the existing top donations list, Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny, trailed Bezos with a $900.7 million gift to their family foundation. The Knights also gave $300 million, the third-largest donation of the year, to the University of Oregon, primarily to support science programs. Phil Knight’s net worth stands at $52 billion, per Forbes.
Also in third place are construction mogul Fred Kummer, founder of HBE Corporation, and his wife, June. The couple made a $300 million gift to the Missouri University of Science and Technology.
The whole top 10 list can be found here.
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