America’s Richest Billionaires keep getting richer. They’re not donating much more!
The members of The Forbes 400 are $1.2 trillion wealthier than a year ago. But how much of their fortune have they given back?
The 400 wealthiest people in the U.S. are a whole lot richer than a year ago, with the total wealth of The Forbes 400 jumping by $1.2 trillion to a record $6.6 trillion. But are these fortunate billionaires getting any more charitable?
Forbes once again investigated the lifetime philanthropic giving of every member of The Forbes 400. In total, these billionaires—worth at least $3.8 billion each—have donated an aggregate $319 billion to charitable causes over their lifetimes.
That’s $32 billion more than we found a year ago, thanks to new gifts supporting a wide range of initiatives—from environmental preservation and affordable housing to local schools and universities.
Overall, however, America’s richest people are still not all that generous, relatively speaking.
Their collective charitable giving equals just 4.6% of their total wealth—and that’s down from 5% last year.
Three-quarters of them have given less than 5% of their fortunes away, including 40% who have donated less than 1% of their riches.
Because some have given much more than others—ranging from Warren Buffett’s $64.8 billion in donations to several billionaires who admit to not having given a dime—we again assigned a philanthropy score to every member of the ranking.
We calculated these scores by adding our estimates of each member’s lifetime giving to their 2025 net worth and then dividing their lifetime donations by that total.
The scores range from 1 to 5, based on giving as a percentage of net worth. Only recorded distributions or paid-out charitable donations were counted; idle money still sitting in foundations or pledged but not yet paid to institutions was again excluded.
Many have foundations with publicly available filings, though these are often released on a one- or two-year delay.
Some members shared updated information or specific details about personal donations outside their foundations, while others declined to comment or did not respond.
Forbes was unable to find information about 31 list member’s charitable giving; we gave them a score of N/A, meaning not available.
A total of 74% of Forbes 400 members scored a 1 (signifying lifetime giving of less than 1%) or a 2 (less than 5%). That’s the highest percentage since Forbes began scoring giving in 2020, as net worths have shot up amid soaring stock markets but charitable donations have not kept pace.
Just eleven of the 400 received the highest score of 5, which means they’ve given away 20% or more of their fortunes.
The eleven are: Edythe Broad, Warren Buffett, Melinda French Gates, Bill Gates, Reed Hastings, Amos Hostetter Jr., Dustin Moskovitz, Lynn Schusterman, MacKenzie Scott, Marilyn Simons and George Soros.
This list is nearly the same as last year, but eBay founder Pierre Omidyar fell to a score of 4 as his net worth rose by $2.4 billion. He was replaced by Facebook and Asana cofounder Dustin Moskovitz, who rose to a 5 after his lifetime giving surpassed $3.9 billion.
Marilyn Simons, the widow of quantitative trading pioneer Jim Simons (d. 2024), also bumped her score from 4 to 5 as her lifetime giving hit $9.4 billion.
For the sixth year in a row, hedge fund tycoon George Soros takes the title of the most generous giver, relative to his net worth.
Soros has doled out more than 75% of his fortune through his Open Society Foundations, which back global humanitarian aid, civic engagement and safeguarding individual freedoms.
Lynn Schusterman, the widow of oil and gas billionaire Charles Schusterman (d. 2000), is now the second most philanthropic person, relative to her net worth, having donated more than 45% of her fortune to causes such as advancing education, criminal justice reform and providing essential resources in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
MacKenzie Scott ranks third, having given away 36% of her wealth through rapid-fire donations of Amazon shares she got in her 2019 divorce from Jeff Bezos.
No one has donated more money to charity, in sheer dollar terms, than Warren Buffett.
His lifetime giving now surpasses $64.8 billion, mainly through yearly gifts to the Gates Foundation and four Buffett-family foundations.
He’s vowed to give away more than 99% of his wealth, though with Berkshire Hathaway stock continuing to climb, the 95-year-old Oracle of Omaha is still only about a third of the way there.
