New Analysis Reveals The Most Charitable American Billionaires

The list was calculated by determining the overall portion of each billionaire’s wealth they’d given away to charity since 2000. A variety of information sources were used, including the IRS and The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s own “Philanthropy 50” reports, but anonymous contributions as well as gifts made before 2000 weren’t included. So, Buffett’s variety of donations totaling more than $46 billion came to 71 percent of his overall fortune as of the end of 2016, enough to earn him the top spot. Second place? Bill Gates, with 22 percent of his fortune, or $18 billion. Next up is former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, who clocked in at ten percent of his fortune given away with $4.5 billion in contributions. One thing you’ll notice just from looking at the top three is that according to these calculations, not only is Buffett the most charitable person in the country, but it really isn’t even a close race. This despite Buffett’s extremely well known efforts to give away not just his own fortune before he dies, but to encourage other extremely wealthy people to do the same, as part of his worldwide Giving Pledge initiative.