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.
Bill Gates
Bill Gates is the co-founder of Microsoft with Paul Allen, and the most visible CEO in the world. The Windows operating system placed Microsoft on the map and made the company synonymous with the PC. Gates’ tremendous wealth and generous philanthropy have garnered him praise and placed him in the elite of charitable givers. He is a ubiquitous presence on the world stage.
- The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a non-profit leader in global development. With a $31.9 billion endowment, the organization has provided $11 billion in grants since its 1994 inception. In 2006, Warren Buffet donated $10 million in shares to the foundation.
- One program of the Gates Foundation is the Global Development Program, a program devoted to alleviating poverty and hunger in the developing world. This goal is to be achieved via a three pronged approach: supporting agricultural development, providing financial services for the poor, and increasing access to information through computing in libraries internationally.
- The Gates Foundation Global Health Program devotes its resources two main areas. The first is increasing access to existing vaccines and drugs to fight common diseases in developing countries and the second is developing effective and practical healthcare solutions.