Billionaire philanthropist Michael Bloomberg is US’s biggest donor of 2025
Former NYC mayor and founder of Bloomberg financial news empire gave $4.3 billion to arts, education, the environment, public health and programs to improve city governments
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AP — For the third consecutive year, Michael Bloomberg landed the No. 1 spot on the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s exclusive ranking of the US’s 50 biggest donors of 2025.
The founder of the Bloomberg financial-news empire and former New York City 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.
The financial industry was the source of wealth for most donors on the list, with 20 philanthropists giving a total of $4.1 billion. Next was technology, with 12 tech donors contributing $10 billion, and then real estate, with four donors giving $466.7 million.
More donors live in New York and California than any other state, and nonprofits in those states received the most gifts.
For many of these donors, philanthropy brings them great meaning.
Jon and Mindy Gray (No. 34, at $63.6 million) primarily support research on inherited cancers related to BRCA mutations — Mindy’s sister died of BRCA-related ovarian cancer at age 44 — and empowering young people in New York City.
One of their initiatives, the Gray Scholars program, provides scholarships to 10 New York City students per year to attend a historically Black college or university. Every year, the Grays participate in a gathering for all the scholars.
“We’re very hands-on people — we enjoy it,” Mindy Gray said. “Other people often come to us and say, ‘I want to do something, but what should I do?’ And it really is what you feel in your heart. You should not be doing this work in areas that don’t move you.”
But few of the country’s wealthiest people are moved to give in the way that the Grays and other Philanthropy 50 donors do. Only 19 of the richest Americans on the Forbes 400 list donated enough to appear in this year’s rankings.
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