Top 25 Most Generous Charity Donors

Philanthropists are people who try to give something back to the world, by sharing their wealth with those in need. Following, we would like to present you with a list we have compiled of the top 25 most generous charity donors. These donors were ranked according to the amount of money they gave away to charity in the year 2012, based on figures released by Forbes Magazine and the Philanthropic Research Institute. Included for each philanthropist are estimates of the amount of money donated throughout their lifetime.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, the two entrepreneurs who founded the Giving Pledge, a campaign meant to encourage billionaires to donate at least half of their fortune to charity causes, emerged as the two leaders in our countdown. Throughout their lifetime, the two donated more than $25 billion each. While Buffet, who was recently awarded for his philanthropic endeavors, claimed that he is not as generous as he seems, given the fact that he never needed the money he gave away, we still believe this is pretty impressive.

Curious to see who else has made it on our list? Let’s take a look at the countdown.

Note: due to limited availability of statistics, only American philanthropists are taken into account for the purposes of this countdown.