Jamsetji Tata, with over $100 billion in donations, tops the humanitarian list of last century

EdelGive and Hurun India have come up with a ranking of top 50 philanthropists of the last century.

Here is a list of the top 10 donors of the 20th century.

Jamsetji Tata — $102.4 billion

Founder of Tata Group, Tata was named the world’s biggest philanthropist of the last century. In 1892, Tata, who made most of his wealth through the Central India Spinning Weaving and Manufacturing company, set up the JN Tata Endowment for higher education in 1870.

Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates — $74.6 billion

Bill and Melinda Gates are among the most respected philanthropists today. The couple, who is now divorced, formed the trust in 2010, focusing on public health, education and climate change.

Henry Wellcome — $56.7 billion

Wellcome, who made his initial wealth through pharmaceuticals in the 1800s, set up the Wellcome trust on his death in 1936 to support the health care issues. Wellcome Trust sold Wellcome Plc to GlaxoSmithKline in 1995 to become a financially independent trust.

Howard Hughes — $38.6 billion

Hughes set up his own medical institute named ‘Howard Hughes Medical Institute’ in 1985 to support biomedical research. He later sold the Hughes Aircraft company for $5.2 billion making the medical institute the richest single philanthropic endowment surpassing Ford Foundation.

Warren Buffett — $37.4 billion

Buffett, who is popularly known as ‘The Oracle of Omaha’, is the only individual to feature in the list without significant philanthropic foundations. He gifted a bulk of his shares of his firm Berkshire Hathaway to Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as well as to Susan Thompson Buffett foundation.

George Soros — $34.8 billion

Soros began his philanthropy journey in 1979 by giving scholarships and establishing the Open Society Foundation. He transferred around $18 billion to his society in 2017.

Hans Wilsdorf — $31.5 billion

The German-origin founder of the watch company ‘Rolex’ endowed his economic ownership to set up Hans Wilsdorf Foundation in 1945.

JK Lilly Sr — $27.5 billion

JK Lilly and his sons together created Lilly endowment in 1937 to support community development, education and religion.The endowment has donated more than $10.9 billion since its inception.

John Rockefeller — $26.8 billion

Rockefeller, who is considered as the wealthiest American of all time, established the Rockefeller foundation in 1913 with a $100 million corpus and also gave away $540 million before his death in 1937.

Edsel Ford — $26.6 billion

Son of the founder of Ford Motor company established the Ford Foundation in 1936 with an initial endowment of $25,000. Currently, the foundation’s estimated endowment value is $14.2 billion, as of 2019.

The ranking is calculated on the basis of total philanthropic value, as the value of the assets...

...today together with the sum of gifts or distributions to date.