Big donations
The list of the top 10 charitable donations announced by individuals or their foundations last year totaled nearly $9.3 billion: two (including that of Bill Gates) exceeded $1 billion, and six by eight donors (one of them made three) are multi-billionaires. The greatest gift after the Microsoft founder was Ann and John Doerr, who donated $1.1 billion to Stanford University through their Benificus Foundation to create the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability with a goal of addressing the most pressing climate – and to address sustainability challenges. In third place are Jackie and Mike Bezos, mother and stepfather of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The couple donated $710.5 million to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center through their Bezos Family Foundation to build 36 labs and a large research facility.