For the third consecutive year, Michael Bloomberg landed the No. 1 spot on the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s exclusive ranking of the 50 biggest donors of 2025. The founder of the Bloomberg financial-news empire and former New York mayor gave $4.3 billion to support arts, education, the environment, public health, and programs to improve city governments.
Bloomberg is followed on the Philanthropy 50 list by three donors who each gave $1 billion or more to charity last year. Bill Gates (No. 2) gave $3.7 billion to the Gates Foundation, and his former Microsoft colleague, the late Paul Allen (No. 3), left a $3.1 billion bequest to start a foundation focused on science and technology. Warren Buffett donated $1.3 billion to four family foundations that support a range of causes.
Together the donors on the Philanthropy 50 list contributed a total of $22.4 billion to charity in 2025. The median gift was $105 million…