Highlighted Philanthropists
Veronica Atkins
Atkins is one of the top fifty most generous philanthropists. Newsweek also proclaimed her part of the “All-Star Team" in philanthropy.
Naveen Jain
Jain has been named one of the Top 20 Entrepreneurs by Red Herring, recognized for winning the Albert Einstein Technology Medal Winner, and received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2007.
George Soros
The Soros Foundations are an international network of local, Soros-founded foundations promoting sociopolitical activities.
Kenneth Langone
In 1978, he partnered with Bernard Marcus and Arthur Blank to found Home Depot, which today is one of the largest and most successful chains in the home improvement industry. He has contributed almost $150 million dollars to various charities.
Bernard Marcus
Bernard Marcus is one of the founders of the Home Depot.
Bernard Marcus studied to be a pharmacist at Rutgers University while working as a cabinet maker at his father's shop. He later worked at a local drugstore as a pharmacist but eventually found became more interested in retail. He rose to the top ranks of Handy Dan Improvement Centers but was fired together with Home Depot co-founder Arthur Blank in 1978 after a disagreement with management. A year later, with the help of business financer Ken Langone, Marcus and Blank started Home Depot.
Bernard Marcus served as the company's first CEO until 2002. His major philanthropic contributions are as follows:
- A donation of over $200 million to fund the Georgia Aquarium, one of the largest aquariums in the world. It opened in 2005.
- The establishment of the Marcus Institute, which aims to provide comprehensive aid to children with brain-related developmental disorders.
- The establishment of the Marcus Foundation, an organization that focuses on addressing issues that concern children, medical research, free enterprise, and the Jewish community and causes.
- The Marcus Foundation pledged $15 million for Georgia Tech's Nanotechnology Research Center Building, a facility that supports nanotechnology research to fight cancer and other diseases, among other benefits of interdisciplinary nanoscience.
- Bernard Marcus is chairman in the Israel Democracy Institute. The institute aims to further the democratic processes in Israel, particularly in the electoral system.
- Bernard Marcus donated $3.9 million to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention based in Atlanta, for the establishment of an emergency anthrax response center.
- Bernard Marcus has made contributions worth $22 million made to other nonprofit groups.