The Chronicle’s annual list of the largest charitable donations from individuals or their foundations totaled nearly $6 billion in 2024, half of which comes from three contributions each worth $1 billion or more. Two of those three gifts went to medical schools for financial aid. In all, four of the largest donations on the list, totaling $2.3 billion, went to support financial aid.
Three contributions were made to private donor foundations, and those gifts also totaled $2.3 billion. Three other donations supported medical research or treatment, and one gift went to support civic engagement, arts and culture.
The list includes 12 gifts instead of 10 due to the links. Six of the donors are billionaires, with a combined net worth estimated at $365 billion.
Topping the list is a gift from the Netflix co-founder Reed Hastingswhose net worth is estimated by Forbes magazine at more than $5 billion. Hastings and his wife, Patti Quillen, donated 2 million shares of Netflix stock worth $1.1 billion in January to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation’s Hastings Fund.
The couple started their fund in 2016 and has primarily supported educational organizations, particularly focused on Hastings, who taught high school math when he was a Peace Corps volunteer in the 1980s and served as president of the California State Board of Education in the early 2000s. st. .
Hastings co-founded the video streaming platform in 1995 as a DVD subscription service. She started streaming movies and TV series in 2007 and later started creating her own content. He stepped down as co-CEO last year and currently serves as chairman of the company’s board of directors.
Medical school aid
Next on the list is $1 billion Michael Bloomberg Provided through Bloomberg Philanthropies to Johns Hopkins University to make medical school free for most students and provide more financial aid to the university’s nursing and public health students.
Bloomberg, whose net worth is estimated at $105 billion, earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the university in 1964. He then founded the Bloomberg financial news empire and served as mayor of New York from 2002 to 2013. His alma mater is credited with at least $3.5 billion. Dollar since he graduated 60 years ago.
Ruth Gottesmana professor emeritus in the department of pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, had the same goal as Bloomberg. She gave her former employer $1 billion in February to support free tuition in perpetuity for students of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Gottesman had a long career in medical school. She joined the college’s Children’s Assessment and Rehabilitation Center in 1968 and began the center’s adult literacy program in the early 1990s. She was later named founding director of the Fisher Landau Center for the Treatment of Learning Disabilities.
Her late husband, David Gottesman, headed the New York investment firm First Manhattan and was an early investor in Berkshire Hathaway and a disciple of Warren Buffett. He left his valuable wallet to his wife when he died in 2022 with instructions to do what she thought was best with it.
Buffett’s money
Chairman and CEO of Berkshire, Warren BuffettGottesman and Bloomberg followed with a large gift of his own. The famous financier gave 1.5 million shares of Berkshire Hathaway stock worth $716.1 million in November to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named after his first wife, who died in 2004.
Buffett, whose net worth is estimated by Forbes at $143 billion, created the Endowment Foundation in 1964 to manage the family’s charitable donations, and it remains a family affair. Two of his three sons serve on its board of directors, and his former son-in-law chairs it. The foundation primarily supports women’s reproductive health. They also provide college scholarships to students in Nebraska, the family’s home country.
The donation is a private contribution Buffett announced in November, and not one of the annual contributions he makes to the foundation and several other donors, which are payments for multibillion-dollar pledges he announced in 2006.
The Chronicle’s annual rankings of the year’s largest donations are based on publicly announced gifts. The number does not include contributions of artwork or gifts from anonymous donors. In March, the Chronicle will reveal its annual rankings of 50 of the largest donorsa list based on benefactors’ total contributions in 2024 rather than individual gifts.
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List
1. Reed Hastings, co-founder of Netflix, and his wife Patty Quillen; $1.1 billion to the Hastings Fund at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation
2. (Tie) Michael Bloomberg, founder of the Bloomberg financial news empire and former mayor of New York, through Bloomberg Philanthropies. $1 billion to Johns Hopkins University for financial aid
2. (Tie) Ruth Gottesman, Professor Emeritus, Albert Einstein College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics; $1 billion to Albert Einstein College of Medicine for financial aid
4. Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway; $716.1 million to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation
5. Reed Hastings, co-founder of Netflix, and his wife Patty Quillen; $502.4 million to the Hastings Fund at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation
6. Roy Vagelos, retired chairman of Merck Pharmaceuticals, and his wife, Diana. $400 million to Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons to establish the Roy and Diana Vagelos Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences
7. Alice Walton, heiress to the Walmart fortune, through the Alice L. Walton; $350 million to Mercy Health to create a heart care center
8. Jackie and Mike Bezos, parents of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, through the Bezos Family Foundation; $185.7 million to the Aspen Institute to establish the Center for Rising Generations
9. (Tie) Barbara Brett, late widow of Glenn Brett, former CEO of Time Warner Cable; A $150 million bequest to Dartmouth College for financial aid
9. (Tie) Hyatt Brown, retired insurance executive, and his wife Sissy; $150 million for the Museum of Arts and Sciences to build a new building
9. (Tie) Emmett Stevenson Jr., financial expert, and his daughter Tessa Stevenson Brand, event planner; $150 million to City of Hope for pancreatic cancer research
9. (Tie) Byron Trott, president of commercial bank BDT & MSD Partners, and his wife Tina, through the Trott Family Charitable Foundation; $150 million to the STARS College Network to help students from small towns and rural areas graduate from college
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Maria de Minto He is a senior correspondent at the Chronicle of Philanthropy, where you can read Full article, including list of donors. This article was provided to The Associated Press by the Chronicle of Philanthropy as part of a partnership to cover philanthropy and nonprofits supported by the Lilly Endowment. The Chronicle is solely responsible for the content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
