Even if the richs of the United States are getting richer, but they are equally becoming more generous.
A new research conducted by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, a periodical based in Washington, D.C., the 50 most generous donors of the United States donated a grand total of USD 9.8 billion in charity in 2014.
According to the periodical, it is a 27.5 percent surge in charitable donations from the USD 7.7 billion donated in 2013.
The top 10 most generous contributors, whether individuals or couples, made a total of over USD 6.2 billion, or 64 percent of the total amount.
The experts attribute the reason behind the jump in charitable donations to a surge in the number of technology entrepreneurs who are under 40 years of age. In this category, three entrepreneurs donated more than USD 500 million each. On the other hand, the median age of the top 50 living donors is 73.
While the oldest living donor is retired banker David Rockefeller (99), the youngest one is Napster co-founder Sean Parker (35).
12 individuals or couples of the top 50 donors on the list are related to the technology sector, while 11 of them are from the field of finance. Four donors have inherited their wealth and three of the donors on the list have earned from real estate.
The donors from tech sector accounted for 47 percent of the total money donated by the entrepreneurs in the top 50 positions.
List of Chronicle of Philanthropy’s 2014 most generous donors in the US:
- Bill & Melinda Gates (Bill Gates is Microsoft co-founder and Melinda is a former Microsoft project manager)
Donation: USD 1.5 billion
Main recipient: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- Ralph C. Wilson Jr. (Buffalo Bills football team founder)
Donation: USD 1 billion (bequest).
Main recipient: Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation in Detroit.
- Ted Stanley (MBI founder)
Donation: USD 652.4 million
Main recipient: Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass.
- Jan Koum (WhatsApp co-founder and chief executive)
Donation: USD 556 million
Main recipient: Silicon Valley Community Foundation in San Mateo, California and Koum
- Sean Parker (Co-founder of Napster and first president of Facebook)
Donation: USD 550 million
Main Recipient: Sean Parker Foundation Donor Advised Fund at Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund in Boston and Sean N. Parker Foundation for Allergy Research at Stanford University in San Francisco
- Nicholas and Jill Woodman (GoPro founders)
Donation: USD 500 million
Main recipient: Silicon Valley Community Foundation
- Michael R. Bloomberg (Founder of Bloomberg and New York City’s mayor between 2002 and 2013)
Donation: USD 462 million
Main recipient: Arts, environment, education, public-health groups and programs aimed at improvement of city governments worldwide
- Rachel Lambert (Bunny) Mellon (His grandfather founded Lambert Pharmaceuticals and invented Listerine)
Donation: USD 411.3 million (bequest).
Main recipient: Gerard B. Lambert Foundation in New York and other groups
- Sergey M. Brin (Co-founder of Internet search giant Google)
Donation: USD 382.8 million
Main recipient: Brin Wojcicki Foundation in Palo Alto, California
- Paul G. Allen (Allen founded investment company Vulcan and co-founded Microsoft)
Donation: USD 298 million
Main recipient: Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and Allen Institute for Cell Science in Seattle.
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