I Notable Billionaire Donations In 2021

Billionaires

Notable Billionaire Donations In 2021

Here are some of the sizeable publicly-disclosed monetary donations by charitable billionaires in 2021. Net worths are as of October 17, 2021.

Jack Dorsey

Jack Dorsey

Net worth: $13.9 billion Source of wealth: Twitter, Square Citizenship: U.S. In March 2021, Twitter founder and CEO Jack Dorsey sold his first-ever tweet as a non-fungible token for $2.9 billion, which he donated to charity. The tweet from 2006 read, “just setting up my twttr.” The money from the NFT sale was donated to GiveDirectly, an organization that sends cash to low-income families impacted by the pandemic. In April 2020, Dorsey promised to give away $1 billion of his Square stock, which represented 28% of his net worth at that time, to COVID-19 relief and other causes, via gifts of his Square stock.

Warren Buffett

Net worth: $103.1 billion Source of wealth: Berkshire Hathaway Citizenship: U.S. Serial philanthropist Warren Buffett donated $4.1 billion in June 2021, in a commitment that marked the halfway point of his pledge to give away more than 99% of his fortune to charitable institutions. One and half decades ago, when the legendary investor held about 474,998 shares of Berkshire Hathaway stocks, he committed to giving away all his shares to charity during his lifetime. Buffett now holds just 238,624 shares valued at around $100 billion. So far, he has given away $41 billion, representing his 16 annual contributions to five charitable trusts: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the Susan A. Buffett Foundation, and the NoVo Foundation.

MacKenzie Scott

Net worth: $57.3 billion Source of wealth: Amazon Citizenship: U.S. Author and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, MacKenzie Scott, announced in June 2021 that she was donating a total of $2.7 billion to 286 American organizations. According to her Medium

blog post, her latest donation will focus on higher education, groups bridging divides through interfaith support, arts and culture, anti-poverty organizations led by people of color, and grassroots groups supporting local communities. The value of her donations in 2020 totaled nearly $5.8 billion to 500 organizations, according to Forbes’ estimates. In May 2019, Scott pledged to give away half of her fortune to charitable causes as a signee of The Giving Pledge.

Wang Xing

Net worth: $21.9 billion Source of wealth: E-commerce Citizenship: China In June 2021, Wang Xing, founder and CEO of food delivery giant Meituan, announced a donation of $2.3 billion in shares to his personal charity, as per a stock exchange filing. The donation represented 10% of his personal stake in Meituan. Wang will convert 57.3 million in Class A shares into Class B shares and transfer those into the Wang Xing Fund. The non-profit advocates for scientific research and education.

Zhang Yiming

Net worth: $59.4 billion Source of wealth: TikTok Citizenship: China ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming pledged $77.3 million to his hometown, the Chinese city of Longyan, in June 2021. The 37-yearold self-made entrepreneur transferred the money to the Fangmei Educational Development Fund, named after Zhang’s grandmothers. The donation will be targeted towards helping teachers with advanced education, improve technical education infrastructure, and support vocational education. In 2019, Yiming donated $10 million to San Francisco-based Minerva Schools and $14 million to the Innovation Fund for his alma mater Nankai University in Tianjin.

Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos

Net worth: $197.8 billion Source of wealth: Amazon Citizenship: U.S. In July 2021, Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos pledged to donate $200 million to the Washington D.C.-based Smithsonian Institution to promote space education, marking the largest ever gift received by the institution since its establishment in 1846. The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum will receive $70 million to renovate its building with more sophisticated technology. The remaining $130 million will go towards a new science and engineering-focused education center connected to the museum that will bear Bezos’ name. In the same month, after his successful spaceflight, Bezos announced another $200 million commitment for a new philanthropic initiative called the Courage & Civility Award. The award allows recipients to direct $100 million to the charities and nonprofits of their choice.

Elon Musk

Net worth: $214.8 billion Source of wealth: Tesla, SpaceX Citizenship: U.S. In September 2021, SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk tweeted his monetary commitment of $50 million to help the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital meet its $200 million fundraising goal of the Inspiration4 spaceflight. As of September 2020, Musk had donated about $25 million to nonprofit groups through his Musk Foundation since he launched the foundation in 2002. A Giving Pledge signee, in 2018, he tweeted he would sell around $100 million worth of Tesla stock “every few years” for charity and will make “major disbursements in about 20 years when Tesla is in a steady state.”