Body
Michael Bloomberg again topped the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual ranking of the 50 biggest U.S. donors of 2025, earning the No. 1 spot for a third straight year with $4.3 billion in giving, the Chronicle said. The report describes Bloomberg—a longtime figure in financial news and a former New York mayor—as directing the donations to areas that include arts, education, the environment, public health and efforts to improve city governments.
On the list, Bloomberg was followed by Bill Gates at No. 2, with $3.7 billion donated to the Gates Foundation. The Chronicle said Paul Allen ranked No. 3 after leaving a $3.1 billion bequest to start a foundation focused on science and technology, and it placed Warren Buffett at No. 4, with $1.3 billion donated to four family foundations supporting a range of causes.
The donors on the Philanthropy 50 list contributed a total of $22.4 billion to charity in 2025, the Chronicle reported. It said the median gift among the 50 donors was $105 million, reflecting both very large outliers and a wide spread of giving levels.
The Chronicle also found that wealth for many donors on the list came from finance. It said 20 of the philanthropists’ sources of wealth were from the financial industry, totaling $4.1 billion, with technology next at 12 tech donors contributing $10 billion, and real estate afterward at four donors giving $466.7 million.
In its report, the Chronicle said more donors live in New York and California than any other state, and that nonprofits in those states received the most gifts. It also highlighted that donors on the list often support causes linked to long-running personal priorities, using the Grays—Jon and Mindy Gray—as an example.
The Chronicle said Jon and Mindy Gray, who it placed at No. 34 with $63.6 million, primarily support research on inherited cancers connected to BRCA mutations and work to empower young people in New York City. It said Mindy Gray’s sister died of BRCA-related ovarian cancer at age 44, and that one Gray initiative, the Gray Scholars program, provides scholarships to 10 New York City students each year to attend a historically Black college or university, with the Grays participating in a gathering for the scholars every year.
Mindy Gray said in the Chronicle report, “We’re very hands-on people — we enjoy it,” and she added that people often ask her what they should do and that “You should not be doing this work in areas that don’t move you.” The Chronicle contrasted such motivations with what it described as fewer wealthy Americans being moved to give in that way, saying only 19 donors on the Forbes 400 list donated enough to appear in this year’s rankings.
The Chronicle reported that MacKenzie Scott was not on the Philanthropy 50 list, although it said she had donated about $26 billion to charities since 2020. It said it is likely that Scott’s gifts through donor-advised funds could have qualified her, but that she and her representatives declined to provide information about how much money she is funneling to the grantmakers.
The Chronicle also described how long-term relationships can shape major gifts, saying it found more than 35 of the 51 donors on the list had long-term relationships—often lasting five to 10 years or more—with the charities to which they gave the most in 2025. Jeff Schreifels, a fundraising consultant at Veritus Group, said, “It’s about building relationships,” adding that it means bridging donors’ desires to change the world with what nonprofits do.
Beyond the top donors, the Chronicle’s report said the list includes philanthropists whose giving does not always draw headlines, including Robert and Karen Hale, James and Patricia Anderson, and Melanie and Richard Lundquist. It said the Hales gave nearly $111 million last year, the Andersons gave $50 million, and the Lundquists gave $50 million along with additional giving focused on health care and education-related efforts.
The Chronicle said its analysis found foundations and donor-advised funds created by donors and colleges and universities were the biggest recipients of last year’s gifts. It also reported that donors supported a range of other causes, including science and technology, health care and medical research, and athletics, reflecting how the biggest 2025 gifts were spread across multiple sectors rather than concentrated in a single field.