Michael Bloomberg has secured the top spot on the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Philanthropy 50 list for the third consecutive year, donating $4.3 billion in 2025. The former New York mayor and founder of Bloomberg LP directed his gifts towards arts, education, the environment, public health, and city government improvement programmes.
He is followed by Bill Gates, who gave $3.7 billion to the Gates Foundation, the late Paul Allen with a $3.1 billion bequest for a science and technology foundation, and Warren Buffett, who donated $1.3 billion to four family foundations. In total, the 50 donors contributed $22.4 billion, with a median gift of $105 million.
The financial industry produced the most donors (20), contributing $4.1 billion, while 12 tech donors gave $10 billion. New York and California were home to the most philanthropists and received the largest share of donations.
Among the list are Jon and Mindy Gray, who gave $63.6 million to support research into BRCA-related inherited cancers and the Gray Scholars programme, which sends 10 New York City students annually to historically Black colleges or universities. Mindy Gray emphasised the importance of giving to causes that resonate personally: “You should not be doing this work in areas that don’t move you.”
Despite the generosity of those on the list, only 19 of the Forbes 400 richest Americans appear in this year’s ranking. MacKenzie Scott, who has donated $26 billion since 2020, is absent as she declined to disclose her donor-advised fund contributions. The Chronicle noted that over 35 of the 51 donors had long-term relationships with recipient charities, often spanning five to ten years or more.
