Billionaire Warren Buffett’s latest gift of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) stock worth more than $2.8 billion to several charities represents merely the tip of a “titan charitable iceberg.”
1. Warren Buffett
Buffett has been giving away Berkshire stock since 2006 and is a member of a growing list of billionaires who have chosen to divest themselves, through charity, of the vast majority of their accumulated wealth.
Buffett, who has pledged eventually to give away 99 percent of his fortune, has donated $23 billion so far, according to Forbes.
2. Bill & Melinda Gates
Microsoft MSFT co-founder, Bill Gates and his wife Melinda launched and along with Buffett head one of the largest private foundations in the world, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The foundation, dedicated to “improving the quality of life for individuals around the world,” had an endowment worth $40 billion as of March 31, 2014.
Between 1994 and 2006, Bill and Melinda Gates gifted more than $26 billion to the foundation that bears their name. The couple have donated $28 billion to date, according to Forbes.
3. Mark Zuckerberg & Priscilla Chan
A relative newcomer to the “titan giving club,” Facebook FB co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and wife, Priscilla Chan, a pediatrician, made the top spot for giving on the 2013 Forbes Philanthropic 50 list of givers.
The couple’s single donation of $992.2 million to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation put them on course to becoming major donors in the years ahead.
4. Alex Waislitz
While the amount is modest compared with the likes of Buffett, Gates and Zuckerberg, the methodology that Australian billionaire Alex Waislitz has decided to employ is unique.
Waislitz said recently that he would donate $50 million over the next 10 years by investing in social venture capital projects through his Waislitz Foundation.
Waislitz said funds would be distributed via donations or grants made by his foundation. The foundation would receive its funding from dividends that come from Waislitz’s private Thorney Investments.
5. Yu Pengnian
From penniless rickshaw driver to self-made billionaire constituted quite an accomplishment for Chinese real estate mogul Yu Pengnian.
Pengnian announced in June that he planned to give away his entire $1.2 billion fortune to a foundation he established five years ago.
Pengnian said his children would receive nothing.
Leaving little or, in this case, nothing to family members has become more of a trend among major figures who have chosen to give away their fortunes.
At the time of this writing, Jim Probasco had no position in any mentioned securities.
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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