The 50 Most Generous Philanthropists

How We Create The List: To measure what donors have given or pledged over the past five years, a team of reporters spends months conducting interviews and scouring databases, news reports, and foundation filings. For consistency, we count pledges in full at the time they're announced, discounting only those that are formally revoked. If a gift is in stock, we value it at the time it's announced. To avoid double-counting, the survey counts gifts to foundations at the time they're given and not when the money flows out of foundations.

Click column heading once to reorder from highest to lowest. Click twice to reorder from lowest to highest.

Rank	Name	Background	2003-07 GIVEN OR PLEDGED (MILLIONS)	Causes	ESTIMATED LIFETIME GIVING* (MILLIONS)	NET WORTH** (MILLIONS)	GIVING AS A % OF NET WORTH

1	Warren Buffett	Berkshire Hathaway CEO	40,650	Health, education, humanitarian causes	40,780	52,000	78
2	Bill and Melinda Gates	Microsoft co-founder	3,519	Global health and development, education	28,144	59,000	48
3	George Kaiser	Oil and gas, banking, real estate	2,271	Poverty in Oklahoma	2,522	11,000	23
4	George Soros	Investor	2,109	Open and democratic societies	6,401	8,800	73
5	Gordon and Betty Moore	Intel co-founder	2,067	Environment, science, San Fran. Bay area	7,404	4,500	165
6	Walton Family	Family of Wal-Mart founder	1,475	Education	2,015	82,500	2
7	Herbert and Marion Sandler	Golden West co-founders	1,368	Medical research, education, social reform	1,389	2,400	58
8	Eli and Edythe Broad	SunAmerica, KB Home founder	1,216	Public educ., arts, scientific and medical research	2,286	7,000	33
9	Donald Bren	Real estate developer	915	Education, conservation, research	1,326	13,000	10
10	Jon Huntsman	Huntsman chairman	800	Cancer, business education	1,233	1,900	65
11	Bernard Osher	Banking, investments	780	Arts, education, social services	805	900	89
12	Alfred Mann	Medical devices	698	Biomedical education and research	1,735	2,200	79
13	Michael and Susan Dell	Dell founder	674	Children's health, education	1,200	17,200	7
14	Michael Bloomberg	Bloomberg founder, NYC mayor	584	Health, education, arts, social services	1,045	11,500	9
15	David Rockefeller	Standard Oil heir, banking	562	Biomed research, global development, arts	937	2,700	35
16	Jeff Skoll	Founding president of eBay	560	Social entrepreneurs	744	3,500	21
17	T. Denny Sanford	Banking and credit cards	559	Science education, medical research	559	2,800	20
18	Veronica Atkins	Widow of Dr. Robert Atkins	519	Eradication of obesity and diabetes	519	60	865
19	John Templeton	Investor	514	Science about life's big questions	1,003	2,000	50
20	Robert Wilson	Investor	508	Environment	541	600	90
21	Pierre and Pam Omidyar	eBay chairman and founder	493	Unleashing human potential	657	8,900	7
22	T. Boone Pickens	Energy and investing	445	Higher education and athletics, health	445	3,000	15
23	Sandy and Joan Weill	Former Citigroup chairman, CEO	435	Education, healthcare, arts, social causes	800	1,800	44
24	John Kluge	Metromedia founder	401	Library of Congress, higher education	751	9,500	8
25	Ted Turner	CNN founder	389	Environment, global security	1,500	2,300	65
26	Lorry Lokey	Business Wire founder, chairman	373	Education, libraries, and culture	415	0	0
27	Kirk Kerkorian**	Investor	365	Humanitarian and Armenian causes	696	18,000	4
28	Shelby White**	Widow of investor Leon Levy	365	Ancient studies, arts, humanities	525	600	88
29	David Koch	Koch Industries EVP	364	Medical care, cancer, education	500	17,000	3
30	Bernard Marcus	Home Depot co-founder	351	Jewish causes, health, free enterprise, children	700	2,000	35
31	Irwin and Joan Jacobs	Qualcomm co-founder	330	Education, arts	627	1,600	39
32	Frank and Jane Batten	Landmark Comm. founder	314	Education, early childhood development	510	2,000	26
33	Robert Meyerhoff	Real estate developer	300	Arts, higher education	305	0	0
34	Paul Allen	Microsoft co-founder	283	Arts, health/human services, science	937	16,800	6
35	Oprah Winfrey	Harpo chairman	263	Education; women, children, and families	303	2,500	12
36	Robert Day	Trust Company of the West CEO	262	Education, health and arts	305	1,600	19
37	Ted and Vada Stanley	MBI founder	254	Mental illness, crisis relief	568	0	0
38	David and Cheryl Duffield	PeopleSoft co-founder	244	Animals, humane society, education	331	1,200	28
39	James Simons	Investor	243	Math, science, education, autism	267	5,500	5
40	Dan Duncan and family	Enterprise Products Ptnrs. co-founder	230	Medical research, education, youth	300	8,200	4
41	Frances Comer	Widow of Lands' End founder	228	Environment, education, youth	268	1,000	27
42	Ira and Mary Lou Fulton	Fulton Homes CEO	224	Higher education, community	266	410	65
43	Dawn Greene	Widow of lawyer Jerome Greene	200	Education, medicine, arts	260	0	0
44	Marguerite Hoffman	Widow of investor Robert Hoffman	199	Dallas arts and social services, science	208	0	0
45	George Lucas	Lucasfilm founder	196	Education, arts, health, civil rights	213	3,900	5
46	Larry Ellison	Oracle CEO	193	Research on aging and diseases	808	26,000	3
47	Thomas Siebel	Siebel Systems founder	189	Education, meth prevention, community	386	1,900	20
48	Peter Lewis	Progressive chairman	188	Arts, environment, youth, social reform	426	0	0
49	Leo and Kay Drey	Schram Glass heir, silviculture	180	Conservation	180	0	0
50	Haim and Cheryl Saban	Saban Capital Group CEO, Chairman	176	Children's healthcare, U.S. and Israeli charities	195	3,400	6

*Based on public records and interviews with donors
**Based on the Forbes 400 list and donor information Data: BusinessWeek, GuideStar, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University