by Dan Sullivan
In life; Money is a necessity and one of the greatest things in life is helping people in need. Certain wealthy people out of their generosity commits a portion of the wealth they've acquired to a philanthropic cause during their lifetime or after death.
In this article, we will talk about several billionaires that loves to get themselves involved in charity work. Many of them give away a portion of their wealth to assist the less privilege and improve the world around them. By so doing, they get to live a fulfilled life.
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A campaign was started by an organization of wealthy people around the world. The organization ensures wealthy people donates part of their wealth to charity. Lots of billionaires pledged to this cause and after a while, the total contributions have summed up to $500 billion .
This charitable campaign was started in the year 2010 and currently has 204 members . It was founded by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet .
The purpose of the campaign is to encourage extremely wealthy people to donate a reasonable portion of their net worth to a charity cause during their lifetime or after death. This does not involve any legal action , it is simply a way to inspire wealthy people around the world to stay committed to a philanthropic cause.
Hundreds of billionaires around the world are pledgers and we will take a look at a few of them in this article. These charitable causes are;
· Poverty Alleviation
· Global Health
· Medical Research
· Education
· Arts and Culture
· Women Empowerment
· Criminal Justice Reform … and many more.
Bill Gates once talked about the importance of charity and it can be seen from the charitable foundation he founded. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a charity organization founded to support the less privilege.
Wealthy people work so hard to ensure their fortunes and wealth are passed down to their heirs and generations to come in a bid to create a family dynasty. Gates once said, if someone is successful to a particular level, it's more important for him or her to start a charitable cause.
He believes to live a fulfilled life, you have to make a positive impact on other people's lives and humanity as a whole. When you consider the fact death is inevitable and you will get to leave everything behind, it challenges your subconscious mind to develop the spirit of giving.
As compared to other countries, the United States can boast of more philanthropist than other countries around the world. That is something to be really proud about. Giving away hard earned money might seem so difficult but most of these billionaires have shown real generosity when it comes to this unique act of love for others.
We will talk about six high profile philanthropists that are dedicated to giving away money for the benefit of humanity. Here is a list;
1. Chunk Feeney
2. Warren Buffet
3. Bill Gates
4. MacKenzie Bezos
5. Ted Turner
6. Azim Premji
Chuck Feeney is an American Businessman known as the James Bond of Philanthropy . He was popular known as a billionaire who secretly gave away all his money . Feeney acquired wealth from a Duty Free Shoppers Group and he became really successful. A time came in his life when he decided it's best to give everything out secretly to a worthy cause.
As someone who grew up in poverty, Chuck Feeney understood the struggles of a common man. The poor and lower class people face all manner of challenges on a daily basis and you will be doing their world a lot of good by supporting them financially. The good feeling you get when you do this inspired Chuck Feeney to give all the billions of dollars he's stacked up over the years away. That ensured he lived a fulfilled life.
Charles Feeney is the founder of The Atlantic Philanthropies , one of the largest philanthropy foundations in the world. Since its inception the foundation has given away $7.5 billion US dollars. He is one of the world's biggest giver and will forever be remembered for his generosity.
The table below represents a breakdown of some of the money the foundation has given away over the years.
YEAR | THE ATLANTIC PHILANTHROPIES GIVE AWAYS |
1982 | Granted $7million to Cornell. |
1984 | Transfers 38.75% DFS ownership to Atlantic. |
1988 | Gave out $142,000 to the Cancer Research Institute. |
1990 | Gives $170 million lifetime grant to University of Limerick. |
1991 | Funds peace building and Northern Ireland reconciliation. |
1999 | Invests in Vietnam's education and health care sector. |
2001 | Grants $320 million to biomedical research in Australia. |
2002 | Invested over $117 million on health care in South Africa. |
2004 | Invested over $25 million to abolish death penalty in the U.S. |
2006 | Funds health coverage for 8 million children in the U.S. |
2008 | Grants over $290 million to University of California Medical Centre. |
2012 | Invested $350 million to develop NYC Tech Campus on Roosevelt Island. |
2016 | Has completed over $1 billion of grants. |
WarrenBuffet is a renowned philanthropist who dedicated a large portion of his net worth to satisfying the needs of people. Warren's net worth is $72.6 billion USD and he is one of the most generous billionaires in the United States.
He started a giveaway program that has seen him spent well over $21 billion in the last couple of years on charity. This is well over 20% of is his company's profit.
Warren Buffet has pledged to donate 85% of his net worth to The Giving Pledge foundation. He is one of the richest men in the world and known as the best investor of all time . His philanthropy nature stands him out in the society.
Bill Gates is an American business tycoon and software developer. He is best known as the founder of Microsoft. He is married to Melinda Gates who is a co-founder of The Bill & Melinda Gates foundation. It became the largest private philanthropy organization in the world as at 2015.
Bill Gates net worth stands out at $96.3 billion USD and he has dedicated his life to giving in recent years. The Giving Pledge foundation is an initiative that encourages billionaires around the world to commit to giving away part of their wealth to charity. It was started in 2010 and has since seen over 200 billionaires becoming signatories .
Bill and his partner have decided to donate 90% of their wealth to charity. That is roughly $90 million USD. With that level of generosity, he can be tagged as the best philanthropist of all time. Bill Gates is not only donating his wealth to charity, he is also inspiring other billionaires to do the same. He is such an amazing individual.
MacKenzieBezos is one of the richest women in the world. She is worth $36 billion and has planned to give away money until her safe has nothing left.
She is one of the high profile billionaires who recently committed to The Giving Pledge foundation. Over the years she has made significant donations to charity and has recently pledge to donate half of her wealth to The Giving Pledge cause.
MacKenzie and her ex-husband Jeff Bezos once donated $2.0 billion to help low income communities in the areas of education and accommodation. She has developed a thoughtful approach to philanthropy and has vowed to continue donating towards the cause until the safe is empty.
Ted Turner is a famous philanthropist. He is the founder of CNN (Cable News Network) . He has supported many charity foundations over the years.
Ted started his own foundation called Turner Global Foundation . Despite a net worth of $2.1 billion USD , he has also donated a lot of money to the United Nation Foundation. Ted Turner is another name you can't ignore when it comes to giving away money to charity.
Other philanthropists such as Azim Premji, an Indian businessman has done well to donate to charity cause in his own way. He is the founder of Wipro , the largest IT consulting firm in the world.
He is valued at $16 billion USD and also created a charitable foundation known as Azim Premji Foundation . The main aim of the foundation is to improve the Education system in India by providing free education for the less privilege.
Over the years, he has donated over $8 billion to several charity programs and foundation. Here is another generous billionaire.
The table below shows some of the key members of the Giving Pledge foundation. These billionaires have committed to the Giving Pledge campaign by pledging at least, half of their net worth to this charitable cause.
NAME | NET WORTH | ABOUT | AGE |
Bill Gates | $96.3 Billion USD | American Software Developer | 64 Years |
Warren Buffet | $72.6 Billion USD | American Investor | 89 Years |
Mark Zuckerberg | $55.1 Billion USD | American Internet Entrepreneur | 35 Years |
Priscilla Chan | $50.1 Billion USD | American Pediatrician | 35 Years |
Barron Hilton | $3.4 Billion USD | American Business Magnet | 72 Years |
Michael Bloomberg | $46.2 Billion USD | American Philanthropist | 78 Years |
Ted Turner | $2.1 Billion USD | American Media Proprietor | 81 Years |
Brian Armstrong | $1.0 Billion USD | American Software Engineer | 37 Years |
Mackenzie Bezos | $36.3 Billion USD | American Novelist | 49 Years |
Dagmar Dolby | $4.1 Billion USD | American Billionaire | 78 Years |
Harry Stine | $3.8 Billion USD | American Businessman | 78 Years |
Elon Musk | $31.8 Billion USD | American Engineer | 48 Years |
All the philanthropists mentioned in this article share a common belief which is to make a difference while they are still alive. They dedicated their life and wealth to charity, and by so doing they lived a fulfilled life. They are doing so much to encourage other wealthy people to pursue a charity cause.
You don't have to be a millionaire or billionaire before you can get inspired to help people. You can do that in your own little way. We hope this article gives anyone or an organization the necessary motivation to start a charitable cause.
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About Dan Sullivan
Dan Sullivan is a renowned professor and esteemed education writer with a passion for inspiring students and transforming the field of education. With a diverse background in academia and practical teaching experience, he has become a leading figure in educational research and pedagogy.
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