New Delhi: Billionaire investor Warren Buffet has made the largest philanthropic donation of this year, by giving USD 2.1 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in the form of 16.6 million shares of his company, Berkshire Hathaway.
According to global wealth intelligence and prospecting company Wealth-X, Buffet topped the list of the 10 biggest single charitable donors of 2014.
Nicholas Woodman, GoPro Founder, CEO and Chairman was ranked second on the list as he along with his spouse donated USD 497.5 million to Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
Eight of the top 10 donations of 2014 were made by American philanthropists. Hong Kong real estate tycoons Ronnie and Gerald Chan are the only non-Americans to appear on the list.
Ronnie and Gerald Chan were ranked third and fourth on the list. The billionaire brothers collectively gave a USD 350 million gift to Harvard University, the largest ever in the school's history.
Harvard also received a USD 150 million donation from hedge fund manager Kenneth Griffin to support financial aid. Griffin was ranked fifth on the coveted list. Six of the top ten donations of 2014 were made to educational institutions, two were given to health causes and two went to philanthropic foundations, Wealth-X said.
Among other contributions, Gert Boyle's USD 100 million donation to Oregon Health & Science University was ranked 6th on the list followed by John Morgridge at the 7th place (USD 100 million to University of Wisconsin-Madison), John Jay Jordan at 8th rank (USD 75 million to University of Notre Dame).
The top ten largest philanthropic donations of 2014 also include, Edward Meyer at 9th rank (USD 75 million donation to Weill Cornell Medical College) and Charles Munger at the 10th place (USD 65 million to University of California Santa Barbara).
The Donated amounts mentioned in this report only took into account donations that have already been made, and do not include pledged amounts.
Wealth-X is the world's leading ultra high net worth (UHNW) intelligence and prospecting firm with the largest collection of curated research on UHNW individuals, defined as those with net assets of USD 30 million and above.
