Out of all the rich American philanthropists in the world, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, has emerged as the top giver for 2013. Apparently, Zuckerberg along with his wife Priscilla Chan, gave away in 2013 more than $970 million, which is 18 million shares of Facebook. The money was given to a Silicon Vally nonprofit organization back in December of last year.
The generous donation is aimed at improving education and healthcare.
Both Zuckerberg and Chan were number 2 on the list of most generous people back in 2012, which itself is a great achievement. The goal then was to help in developing North Carolina and several infrastructures in the U.S.
The Chronicles of Philanthropy reported that the donation was the largest charitable gift on public record in all of 2013, which placed Zuckerberg and his wife at the top of the list of top 50 American philanthropists of the year.
The top 50 contributors did a great job by donating a total $7.7 billion, along with pledging $2.9 billion. It's great to see that the rich are still willing to perform commendable acts that benefit others in a good way.
The Chronicles also said that living donors are increasing the amount of money they give to charity.
"Because that figure includes some sizable bequests-such as $750 million for an environmental foundation-signs of a surge in donations are clearest in the giving records of living donors: The $6.2 billion they pledged last year was nearly equal to the sums such donors provided in the previous two years combined. It's also more than living donors have given since 2008, and the $86.1 million median gift in 2013 set a record," said the Chronicles of Philanthropy.
Several of America's top givers did not make the list, but that doesn't mean they are not giving. The thing is, their donations in 2013 were counted as pledges that they are still paying off from previous years. For example, Bill Gates and his wife Melinda, had pledged $3.3 billion in 2004. They are still paying off that amount up to this very day. It is understood they paid $181.3 million last year, though it is not certain how much they will give in 2014.
The top 3 on the list are as follows:
- Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan
- George Mitchell
- Philip and Penelope Knight
