{"id":65807,"date":"2016-07-11T17:56:12","date_gmt":"2016-07-11T21:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/?p=65807"},"modified":"2016-07-17T02:39:29","modified_gmt":"2016-07-17T06:39:29","slug":"11-billionaires-giving-away-fortunes-worthwhile-causes-04-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/11-billionaires-giving-away-fortunes-worthwhile-causes-04-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"11 billionaires who are giving away their fortunes to worthwhile causes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bill<\/p>\n

The majority of billionaires give at least some of their money to charity, but some of them are planning on giving away the majority of their fortunes to worthwhile causes. Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett<\/a> and Bill and Melinda Gates partnered together to create the Giving Pledge<\/a>. This pledge invites the world’s wealthiest people to pledge more than half of their wealth to charitable causes in their lifetimes or in their wills.<\/p>\n

To date, more than 137 of the world’s ultra-wealth individuals and couples have joined the cause. Some of them have even pledged 99 percent of their money to charity and other worthwhile causes. Here are 11 billionaires who are giving away their fortunes to worthwhile causes as part of the Giving Pledge.<\/p>\n

#1 – Paul Allen<\/h2>\n

\"Paul<\/p>\n

Net Worth:<\/strong> $17.4 billion<\/p>\n

Paul Allen has given away $2 billion so far to scientific research through the Allen Institute for Brain Science. The Microsoft co-founder joined the Giving Pledge in 2010. The majority of his philanthropy is seen in the Pacific Northwest, specifically in science research. Included in his $2 billion of donations so far is a $100 million donation to combat the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa.<\/p>\n

#2 – Manoj Bhargava<\/h2>\n

\"Manoj<\/p>\n

Net Worth:<\/strong> $1.5-4 billion<\/p>\n

Manoj Bhargava, who founded 5-Hour Energy, pledged to give almost all of his wealth away to charity. The CEO focuses his philanthropy on the alleviation of human suffering. So far his foundation has adopted more than 400 projects, including advancing women’s career education in rural India. Another project included bettering schools and hospitals. Bhargava’s foundation is also trying to cut fossil fuel emissions in half.<\/p>\n

#3 – Sara Blakely<\/h2>\n

\"Sara<\/p>\n

Net Worth:<\/strong> $1.06 billion<\/p>\n

Sara Blakely made her money by founding and selling Spanx. The billionaire promised to donate her money to “make the world a better place … one woman at a time. Blakely began the effort with a program called Leg-UP. Through the program, female entrepreneurs can feature their products in the Spanx catalog for free. Other contributions include financing college education for women and funding entrepreneurship programs in girls’ schools. Blakeley also donated $1 million to Oprah’s Leadership Academy for girls in South Africa.<\/p>\n

#4 – Warren Buffett<\/h2>\n

\"Warren<\/p>\n

Net Worth:<\/strong> $66.7 billion<\/p>\n

Warren Buffett has already donated more than $21.5 billion to philanthropic causes. He create the Giving Pledge and promised to donate more than 99 percent of his money to charitable causes during his lifetime or upon his death. In his pledge letter on the website, Buffett writes, “To date about 20% of my shares [in Berkshire Hathaway stock] have been distributed” to charity. He plans to continue distributing about 4 percent of his stock in the company every year.<\/p>\n

#5 – Patrice and Precious Motsepe<\/h2>\n

\"Patrice<\/p>\n

Net Worth:<\/strong> $1.45 billion<\/p>\n

Patrice Motsepe is South Africa’s first and so far only black billionaire. He founded the mining company African Rainbow Minerals. Patrice and his wife Precious donate their money to helping less fortunate South Africans become independent and self-supporting. The couple plans to put at least half of their wealth toward improving the lives of children, the unemployed, and the disabled. They are also supporting the creation of new jobs, better education, and other causes.<\/p>\n

#6 – Richard Branson<\/h2>\n

\"Richard<\/p>\n

Net Worth:<\/strong> $5.1 billion<\/p>\n

Richard Branson is the founder of Virgin Group and has worked in the fields of music, telecommunication, air and space travel, and more. Branson pledged to give at least half his wealth to charity during his life or upon his death. He and his wife Joan joined the Giving Pledge in 2013. Branson spends about 80 percent of his time working with Virgin United, the charitable branch of the Virgin Group. The group uses entrepreneurship to tackle issues like conflict resolution, carbon emissions, and environmental protection.<\/p>\n

#7 – Bill and Melinda Gates<\/h2>\n

\"Bill<\/p>\n

Net Worth:<\/strong> $77.5 billion<\/p>\n

Bill and Melinda Gates are the other creators of the Giving Pledge. Together the couple has given away more money than anyone else in the world. According to Wealth-X, the Gates’ have given away $27 billion. The couple uses their foundation to fund initiatives and programs around the world. These programs include emergency relief, agricultural development, urban poverty, education, and global health. Specifically, the couple is devoted to fighting diseases that are preventable with treatments like vaccinations.<\/p>\n

#8 – Azim Premji<\/h2>\n

\"Azim<\/p>\n

Net Worth:<\/strong> $17.5 billion<\/p>\n

Azim Premji is devoted to reforming India’s public education system through his Azim Premji Foundation. The chairman of Indian consulting and IT company has given away $8 billion so far. Premji joined the Giving Pledge in 2013, after he already donated 8.7 percent of his Wipro stock to set up his foundation. That stock was valued at $2 billion. His nonprofit’s initiatives include the Computer Aided Learning Program and Azim Premji University, which trains teachers.<\/p>\n

#9 – Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan<\/h2>\n

\"Mark<\/p>\n

Net Worth:<\/strong> $35.7 billion<\/p>\n

Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan donated $25 million to the CDC Foundation last year to fight Ebola. Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook and remains the company’s CEO, was one of the first people to join the Giving Pledge in 2010. The couple has given away $1.6 billion to date. Zuckerberg and Chan gave $100 million each to improving Bay-Area schools and the public school system in Newark, New Jersey. After donating to the CDC Foundation, last year, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife encouraged all of their Facebook followers to do the same.<\/p>\n

#10 – George B. Kaiser<\/h2>\n

\"George<\/p>\n

Net Worth:<\/strong> $9.3 billion<\/p>\n

George B. Kaiser made his billions in the oil, gas, and banking industries. He is currently the chairman of BOK Financial. Kaiser explained that he joined the Giving Fund to help address the root causes of poverty, as well as “reverse the generational cycle of poverty.”<\/p>\n

#11 – Vladimir Potanin<\/h2>\n

\"Vladimir<\/p>\n

Net Worth:<\/strong> $13.5 billion<\/p>\n

Vladimir Potanin is ranked by Forbes as the richest man in Russia and the 60th richest man in the world. He amassed his fortune by buying up metal companies in Russia as they were privatized. In announcing his decision to join the Giving Pledge, Potanin explained that he wants to use his wealth to “support programs in the area of education, culture and philanthropic development,” particularly in Russia.<\/p>\n

It’s also worth noting that Potanin plans to give away the majority of his money for the benefit of his kids, explaining that the “burden of extreme wealth” could “deprive them of any motivation to achieve anything in life on their own.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The majority of billionaires give at least some of their money to charity, but some of them are planning on giving away the majority of their fortunes to worthwhile causes. Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates partnered together to create the Giving Pledge. This pledge invites the world’s wealthiest people to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":65813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,25,6],"tags":[223,7560,10666,9948,10667,292],"class_list":{"0":"post-65807","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-finance","8":"category-business","9":"category-strategy","10":"tag-bill-gates","11":"tag-billionaires","12":"tag-giving-pledge","13":"tag-lists","14":"tag-paul-allen","15":"tag-warren-buffett"},"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65807"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65827,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65807\/revisions\/65827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}