Tag: bill gates

Most Charitable People In the World

On April 12, 2018

Who are the most generous people in the world? The following people outrank almost 99% of the rest of the world in their philanthropic giving.

Bill and Melinda Gates

Bill and his wife Melinda have donated over $27 billion in their lifetime. While Bill is mostly known for founding Microsoft, he and his wife now spend most of their time supporting philanthropic causes. They use their foundation, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to issue grants for initiatives and programs across the globe, focusing on agricultural development, emergency relief, global libraries, urban poverty, global health, and education.

Azim Premji
Azim Premji Is worth $16 billion and has donated $8 billion of that, making his generosity index 50%. Azim focuses his philanthropy on working to reform India’s school and examination systems. He is also a member of The Giving Pledge, a pledge to give away more than half of your worth to charity. He has also twice been listed among the 100 most influential people by TIME Magazine.

Jon Huntsman Sr.
Jon Huntsman Sr. is the founder and executive chairman of Huntsman Corporation, a chemical product manufacturer. Huntsman has survived both prostate and mouth cancer and, as a result, established the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah. He makes most of his donations to cancer research centers as well as colleges and universities.

Gordon Moore
Gordon Moore currently runs the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation with his wife. This foundation focuses mainly on the San Francisco area, environmental conservation and science. In December 2007, Moore and his wife donated $200 million to Caltech and the University of California for the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope, which is expected to become the world’s second largest optical telescope in 2020.

The philanthropic ventures of Bill and Melinda Gates, Azim Remji, Jon Huntsman Sr. and Gordon Moore are so grand that many of them have given more to charity than they are worth.

Bill Gates Donates $100 Million to Help Find a Cure For Alzheimer’s

By Philip Burroughs

On December 19, 2017

In Cancer Research, Philanthropy, Philip Burroughs

There is no question that Bill Gates is one brilliant individual. Fortunately, if there is one by-product from a man that has made billions it would be the fact that he is actually one generous person. His latest useful endeavor is to donate $100 million towards research to find a cure for Alzheimer’s.

It goes without saying that Alzheimer’s is a terrible disease. At last count, it had stolen the memories and intellect of over 47 million Americans. Those statistics continue to rise simply because there is no known cure for the disease. Luckily for us, Bill Gates is trying to change that.

For Gates, the main focus of this most recent act of philanthropy is to fund the Dementia Discovery Fund, which is a group dedicated to some of the more out-of-the-box ideas behind why this disease is so consistently devastating. This group is also dedicated to looking at the immune system of the brain for clues on how this disease is able to flourish. Perhaps most interestingly, this is the first time that Gates has donated money to fund research into a noncommunicable disease. Normally, the Microsoft tycoon usually has done a lot of work through his foundation regarding HIV, Malaria and Polio just to name a few.

For scientists, finding a cure to a devastating disease is practically the holy grail. Individuals can spend whole careers dedicated to studying just one disease. Funding for the development of new drugs for a disease can be a serious roadblock to an already daunting process. This is one of the reasons why Gates’ donation is so important.

Another reason is because of the immense amount of failed trials regarding the new drugs for treating this disease. Gates knows there have been many failed trials, so his funding will go to helping new trials to development. He is also hoping that a new emphasis will be placed on Alzheimer’s research simply because there are currently very few drugs that treat the disease specifically, only drugs that treat memory loss or confusion.

Scientists know there are a lot of biomarkers that can be found in individuals that later develop Alzheimer’s. One of the things Bill Gates hopes his donation will do is spur researchers to look outside the box and spur the development of medications that can taken as a preventative measure. For instance, you wouldn’t give someone Lipitor to prevent a heart attack; it would already be too late. With Gates’ donation, there is none too soon now a much better chance that new drugs will develop to make Alzheimer’s a thing of the past.

The World’s Most Philanthropic Individuals

By Philip Burroughs

On August 4, 2017

In Cancer Research, Philanthropy, Philip Burroughs

Philanthropy, as I’ve mentioned multiple times before on this website, is crucial. It is necessary that we come together whenever we can and help each other out. Without philanthropy, several organizations and charities couldn’t exist, and that would leave the world in a worse state than it already is. These generous people donate their time and money to give to a cause bigger than themselves, and that is an incredibly noble gesture. That being said, I figured I would round off a few of the world’s most charitable people.

Bill Gates

For anybody who knows Bill Gates and how much money he is worth, this may not come as much of a surprise. However, even for those of you who are already familiar with Bill Gates’ philanthropic endeavors, you may be surprised to know just how much he has actually given away. To date, Gates has given away $27 billion dollars. That’s an incredibly large amount of money. However, he is most famous for co-founding and running the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation distributes grants to organizations and initiatives designed to make the world a better place.

Jon Huntsman Jr.

While he may not be a household name like Bill Gates, Jon Huntsman Jr. is just as philanthropic. As a survivor of both prostate and oral cancer, Huntsman Jr. has dedicated his life to donating to cancer research centers in the hunt for a cure. He has donated over $1 billion and has even joined Warren Buffett’s The Giving Pledge, and institution founded by Buffett that is comprised of the world’s wealthiest billionaires for the sole purpose of donating most of, or all, of their wealth.

Pierre Omidyar

Much like Hunstman Jr., Pierre Omidyar is not necessarily a well-known figure; however, eBay, the company he runs, is incredibly popular. Back in 1998, Omidyar and his wife founded the Omidyar Foundation which has donated millions to a variety of charitable causes and organizations, including human rights, energy and technology. What’s more, Omidyar has even sold 10% of his shares in eBay to several unknown charities. That comes to a whopping $270 million.