From Bill Gates To Warren Buffett - List Of Biggest Charitable Donations Made In 2022

In a year that saw global recession fears deepening, networths of the richest plummeting and continuously rising interest rates, some of the richest people in the world did not shy away from donating large amounts of money to charity.

The largest charitable donations announced by individuals or their foundations in 2022 sum up to a mammoth amount of nearly $9.3 billion.

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The contributions went to large, well-established institutions, three of them private foundations and three universities to support environmental sustainability, children¡¯s mental health, and stem-cell research. The other gifts backed cancer research and treatment, housing efforts, youth programs, and reproductive health.

Two of the biggest donations of 2022 exceeded the mammoth $1 billion mark, and six of the eight donors (one donor made three donations) are multibillionaires. The combined net worth of those six multibillionaire donors is over $325 billion, as per AP report.

Let us have a look at the biggest charitable donations done in 2022, as per the Chronicle of Philanthropy¡¯s annual list.

1. Bill Gates - $5 billion

Topping the list is Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who gave $5 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to back the grantmaker¡¯s work in global health, development, policy and advocacy, and US education.

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67 year old Bill Gates, whose net worth is estimated at nearly $103 billion as per Forbes list and $109 billion as per Bloomberg Billionaires Index, had garnered attention in July 2022 when he had announced that he was giving $20 billion to the foundation he runs with his former wife, Melinda French Gates.

However, foundation officials confirmed in December 2022 that three-fourths of that $20 billion went toward paying off the $15 billion he and French Gates had pledged in July 2021. The remaining $5 billion was a new infusion to the foundation.

Also Read: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Appoints Indian Philanthropist Ashish Dhawan To Board Of Trustees

2. Ann and John Doerr - $1.1 billion

Second in the list of biggest donations are Ann and John Doerr, with a $1.1 billion donation through their Benificus Foundation to Stanford University for launching the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.

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It is an effort to tackle the world¡¯s most urgent climate and sustainability challenges. The new school will focus on eight areas of scholarship: climate change, Earth and planetary sciences, energy technology, sustainable cities, the natural environment, food and water security, human society and behavior, and human health and the environment.

The new school will house several academic departments and interdisciplinary institutes. It will also be home to a ¡°sustainability accelerator,¡± which, among other efforts, will award grants to researchers and others to develop new technologies in environmental sustainability and related arenas, advance new policies, and support partnerships.

John Doerr is a venture-capital investor who made his mark and much of his fortune as an early backer of Silicon Valley technology giants like Sun Microsystems, Amazon, and Google. Today he serves as chairman of the investment firm Kleiner Perkins, and his net worth stands at a little more than $9 billion.

3. Jackie and Mike Bezos - $710.5 million

Third place in the list belongs to Jackie and Mike Bezos, the mother and stepfather of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The couple gave the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center $710.5 million to build 36 research labs and an additional large research facility. The grant will also support the cancer center¡¯s clinical trials and immunotherapy research over the next 10 years.

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The couple have been fairly low-profile philanthropists until recently. Yet Jackie Bezos has been closely involved in several nonprofit projects over the years. She created the Bezos Scholars Program at the Aspen Institute, the Aspen Challenge, and Students Rebuild, all of which are education programs for various age groups. Mike Bezos spent 32 years working as an engineer and manager with the oil and gas giant Exxon Mobil before retiring and turning his attention to the couple¡¯s giving, as per the report.

Also Read: Jeff Bezos Donates $123 million For Homeless Families

4. Warren Buffett - $474.3 million

92YO legendary investor and billionaire Warren Buffett comes fourth in the list.

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Warren Buffett gave stock valued at nearly $474.3 million to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, a grantmaker Warren Buffett established in 1964 to manage the family¡¯s charitable giving that was later renamed for his first wife, who died in 2004. The foundation supports women¡¯s reproductive health and provides college scholarships for students in Nebraska, where the foundation is located.

A representative for Buffett confirmed the gift was a special one-time contribution that Buffett decided to make in late November rather than one of the annual donations he makes to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, and several other grantmakers, which are payments toward multibillion-dollar pledges he announced in 2006.

Also Read: How A Lost iPhone Led To Warren Buffett Investing Billions In Apple

5. Ruth DeYoung Kohler II - $440 million

The late Ruth DeYoung Kohler II comes in fifth on the charitable donation list. The Kohler Company heiress, who died in 2020 at 79, had left a $440 million bequest to launch the Ruth Foundation for the Arts, a Milwaukee grantmaker that is devoted to supporting visual- and performing-arts groups throughout the country.

Ruth Foundation for the Arts was launched in 2022.

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It plans to award about $20 million a year. Kohler was an avid arts supporter and ran the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, from 1972 to 2016.

6. MacKenzie Scott - $236 million, $281 million & $275 million

Last but not the least on the list is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos¡¯ ex wife MacKenzie Scott. Not one but in fact three of MacKenzie Scott's donations have made it to the biggest donation list of 2022.

She gave $436 million to Habitat for Humanity International. The gift was reportedly unrestricted, as has been the case with most of Scott¡¯s giving. When Habitat for Humanity officials announced the gift in March, they said they plan to use the money to tackle the global housing crisis and advocate for systemwide changes to increase fair access to low-cost housing for everyone.

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Two additional donations from MacKenzie Scott ¡ª $281 million to Boys & Girls Clubs of America and $275 million to Planned Parenthood Federation of America ¡ª also landed on the list of 2022.

More About The Charity List

The Chronicle¡¯s annual rankings are based on the biggest publicly announced gifts. The tally does not include contributions of artwork or gifts from anonymous donors, as per AP report. In February 2022, the Chronicle will unveil its annual ranking of the 50 biggest donors, a list based on individuals¡¯ total contributions in 2022 rather than individual gifts.

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