00:00 Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Saturday, February 17.
00:05 Today on Forbes, America's Top Givers 2024.
00:10 The 25 Most Philanthropic Billionaires.
00:14 America's 25 biggest philanthropists billed out billions of dollars in grants to a wide
00:19 range of causes last year, from medical and scientific research to environmental sustainability
00:25 to legal services for low-income Americans.
00:28 And ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November this year, several of these philanthropists
00:33 focused their giving on groups that strengthen democracy.
00:37 Forbes found that altogether, the lifetime giving of these 25 philanthropists through
00:41 December 30, 2023, rose to nearly $211 billion, up about 7% from last year's total.
00:49 New giving just in 2023, by the members of this year's list, totaled nearly $25 billion.
00:57 But that increase in charitable giving pales in comparison to the rise in their fortunes
01:01 in the past year.
01:03 The 25 biggest givers are together now worth an estimated $1.35 trillion, up an astonishing
01:09 44% more than a year ago, largely thanks to a dramatic rise in U.S. stocks.
01:16 Warren Buffett tops our list as the biggest giver for the fourth year in a row, with $56.7
01:22 billion in lifetime giving.
01:24 The 93-year-old CEO of conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway is on a mission to make sure that
01:29 he doesn't leave his heirs a fortune.
01:31 In a statement he issued in November to accompany a gift of Berkshire shares to four family
01:36 charitable foundations, Buffett wrote, quote, "My children, along with their father, have
01:41 a common belief that dynastic wealth, though both legal and common in much of the world,
01:46 including the United States, is not desirable."
01:48 Still, Buffett has only donated 30% of his fortune, in part because the value of his
01:55 Berkshire Hathaway stock keeps rising.
01:59 Mackenzie Scott continues to give away billions of dollars a year, faster than just about
02:04 anyone else in the ranking, to a wide variety of nonprofits in the U.S. and countries like
02:08 Brazil and India.
02:10 In December, the novelist and former wife of Jeff Bezos published a list of the 360
02:16 nonprofits to which she donated a combined $2.15 billion during 2023.
02:22 That brings her lifetime giving, in less than five years, to nearly $16.6 billion to 1,954
02:29 groups.
02:30 This is more than all but four others on the list, all of whom have been at this for at
02:34 least three times as many years.
02:37 Scott, who received a 4% stake in Amazon as part of the divorce settlement with Bezos
02:41 in 2019, now owns just under 2% of the company, per a recent regulatory filing.
02:49 Four newcomers join the ranks of the biggest givers.
02:51 One, Barbara Pekower, created the JPB Foundation in 2011, two years after her husband, billionaire
02:58 investor Jeffrey Pekower, died.
03:02 He was the biggest beneficiary of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme.
03:05 In a settlement with U.S. authorities, she agreed to return $7.2 billion to the victims
03:10 of Madoff's fraud in 2010.
03:13 But there were billions of dollars more in Jeffrey Pekower's estate as a result of his
03:17 investing, which over the years, Barbara has contributed to the JPB Foundation.
03:22 The other newcomers?
03:23 Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus and his wife, Billie, cable TV pioneer Amos Hostetter
03:29 Jr. and his wife, Barbara, and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife, Wendy.
03:36 To see the top five on the top givers list in detail, look out for our Forbes reports
03:40 video.
03:41 For full coverage and to see the whole list, check out the Forbes Wealth Teams piece on
03:46 Forbes.com.
03:48 This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.
03:50 Thanks for tuning in.
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