00:00 America's 25 biggest philanthropists doled out billions of dollars in grants to a wide
00:05 range of causes last year, from medical and scientific research to environmental sustainability
00:11 to legal services for low-income Americans.
00:14 And ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November this year, several of these philanthropists
00:19 focused their giving on groups that strengthen democracy.
00:22 Altogether, the lifetime giving of these 25 philanthropists through December 30, 2023,
00:28 rose to nearly $211 billion, up about 7 percent from last year's total Forbes found.
00:34 New giving just in 2023 by the members of this year's list totaled nearly $25 billion.
00:41 Here are America's top five philanthropists.
00:45 Number five, Mackenzie Scott.
00:48 Scott gave $2.15 billion in 2023 to a total of 360 groups in 35 U.S. states and countries
00:56 like Brazil and India.
00:58 This includes donations to CAMFED, a Pan-African group supporting girls' education and women's
01:03 leadership; Just the Pill, a U.K. group that delivers abortion pills by mail; and legal
01:08 aid groups in Oklahoma, West Virginia, and four other U.S. locations offering legal services
01:14 to low-income residents.
01:15 Scott, who was previously married to Jeff Bezos and received a 4 percent stake in Amazon
01:20 in their 2019 divorce, does not have a traditional charitable foundation, but instead does at
01:26 least some of her charitable giving via donor-advised funds.
01:30 Number four, Michael Bloomberg.
01:32 The 82-year-old founder of financial data and media company Bloomberg LP doled out $3
01:37 billion in 2023, nearly $1.3 billion more than he'd given away in 2022.
01:44 He committed $500 million over several years to Beyond Carbon, a philanthropic effort to
01:50 fight the climate crisis, following a $500 million commitment he made in 2019 when he
01:55 launched the effort.
01:57 He also pledged $420 million over four years to an initiative to reduce tobacco use in
02:02 110 countries, including China and India.
02:06 Last year, Mike Bloomberg said he would donate his stake in his company, Bloomberg LP, to
02:10 Bloomberg Philanthropies when he dies, if not sooner.
02:14 Following the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, Bloomberg donated $44 million to Megan David
02:20 Odom, the Israeli Red Cross.
02:23 Number three, George Soros.
02:25 Over the course of three decades, hedge fund founder George Soros, now 93, put $32 billion
02:32 of his fortune into Open Society Foundations.
02:35 It funds groups that promote democracy, transparency, and freedom of speech, and is active in some
02:40 120 countries.
02:42 Open Society Foundation encompasses a number of funding entities.
02:45 In the U.S., its Open Society Institute is a registered charitable foundation that has
02:50 $4.5 billion in net assets.
02:53 Soros' now 38-year-old son, Alex, was quietly elected chair of Open Society Foundations
02:58 in December 2022.
03:00 The news became public in June 2023.
03:04 Number two, Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates.
03:08 Bill and Melinda continued to co-chair the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, despite
03:12 their 2021 divorce.
03:14 Forbes counts the former couple's donations as a combined number.
03:18 Their foundation, which, among other things, works to vaccinate children in poor countries,
03:22 has been increasing its annual budget.
03:24 Its goal is $9 billion in annual distributions by 2026.
03:30 Number one, Warren Buffett.
03:32 Warren Buffett tops our list as the biggest giver for the fourth year in a row, with $56.7
03:38 billion in lifetime giving.
03:40 The 93-year-old CEO of conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, who also gave away the most in 2023,
03:46 is on a mission to make sure that he doesn't leave his heirs a fortune.
03:49 "My children, along with their father, have a common belief that dynastic wealth, though
03:54 both legal and common in much of the world, including the United States, is not desirable,"
03:59 Buffett wrote in a statement he issued in November to accompany a gift of Berkshire
04:02 shares to four family charitable foundations.
04:05 Still, he's only donated 30% of his fortune, in part because the value of his Berkshire
04:10 Hathaway stock keeps rising.
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