As the coronavirus pandemic sweeps across the globe, billionaires are donating to the fight against it—with some giving more than others. Since mid-March, Forbes has been tracking how much this ultra-rich set has been donating to COVID-19 causes. While most of the world’s 2,095 billionaires have yet to give, or won’t disclose how much they’ve spent, at least 77 of them have reached into their wallets. Of those, 54 have disclosed at least part of their giving while another 23, such as Alibaba’s Joseph Tsai, gave unspecified amounts of cash or provided assistance in the form of medical supplies or equipment that Forbes was unable to value.
Of these billionaires, Jack Dorsey has emerged as the most generous giver so far, after announcing on April 7 that he was moving $1 billion of his Square stock—about a quarter of his $3.9 billion net worth—into an LLC to support COVID-19 relief efforts and other causes. It’s unclear how much of this $1 billion will go toward the coronavirus pandemic (so far he has given out about $5 million combined to four organizations), but even if it ends up being just 20% of his pledge, he will still have far outspent his peers. The second-largest pledge comes from Indian tech magnate Azim Premji, who plans to give $132 million to humanitarian aid and health interventions to curb the spread of COVID-19. Bill Gates comes in third, with $105 million committed, mostly to be spent on vaccines, treatment and diagnostic development.
Donald Trump, America’s first billionaire president, also makes Forbes’ roundup, following a $100,000 donation—one quarter of his salary—to the Department of Health and Human Services. The check represents 0.005% of his $2.1 billion net worth.
One Oklahoma billionaire who has committed $10 million so far was critical of President Trump, not because of his paltry gift but because of his administration’s response thus far. “It’s unfortunate that private charity has to assume the role of primary safety net and even supply chain and logistics manager because of the failure of government to perform its function,” said George Kaiser.
Here are the billionaires who disclosed gifts, sorted by contribution amount and then measured by gift as percentage of their net worth. (It does not include the 30-plus billionaires, including Ralph Lauren and Mukesh Ambani, whose companies have given aid or who have promised to use personal funds to help their companies weather the storm.)
Billionaire Contributions To Pandemic Relief
| NAME | RESIDENCE | CONTRIBUTION PURPOSE | CONTRIBUTION VALUE (M USD) | NET WORTH (M USD) | % OF NET WORTH |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jack Dorsey | San Francisco, California | relief efforts, other causes | as much as 1,000 | 3,900 | as much as 25.64% |
| Azim Premji | Bangalore, India | humanitarian aid, healthcare | 132 | 6,100 | 2.16% |
| Bill Gates | Medina, Washington | treatment and vaccine development | 105 | 104,100 | 0.10% |
| Andrew Forrest | Perth, Australia | medical supplies, testing development | 100+ | 8,200 | 1.22%+ |
| Jeff Bezos | Seattle, Washington | hunger relief | 100 | 138,000 | 0.07% |
| Michael Dell | Austin, Texas | vaccine development, other causes | 100 | 27,700 | 0.36% |
| Lynn Schusterman | Tulsa, Oklahoma | economic relief | 70 | 3,400 | 2.06% |
| Amancio Ortega | La Coruna, Spain | medical supplies and equipment purchase | 68 | 66,800 | 0.10% |
| Nicky Oppenheimer | Johannesburg, South Africa | economic relief | 54.5 | 7,500 | 0.73% |
| Johann Rupert | Cape Town, South Africa | economic relief | 54.5 | 4,900 | 1.11% |
| Michael Bloomberg | New York, New York | relief efforts in developing countries, other causes | 46+ | 52,800 | 0.09%+ |
| Patrice Motsepe | Johannesburg, South Africa | medical supplies, water access | 43.5 | 1,600 | 2.72% |
| Mark Zuckerberg | Palo Alto, California | hospitals, scientific research, education | 36 | 66,000 | 0.05% |
| David Tepper | Miami Beach, Florida | community organizations | 20+ | 12,000 | 0.17%+ |
| Alisher Usmanov | Moscow, Russia | medical supplies and equipment | 20+ | 14,800 | 0.14%+ |
| Leon Black | New York, New York | food and other supplies for hospital staff | 20 | 7,200 | 0.28% |
| Jack Ma | Hangzhou, China | vaccine development, medical supplies | 14+ | 41,800 | 0.03%+ |
| Li Ka-shing | Hong Kong, Hong Kong | community organizations | 13+ | 26,300 | 0.05%+ |
| Denise Coates | Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom | hospitals | 12.6 | 6,800 | 0.19% |
| Leonardo Del Vecchio | Milan, Italy | hospitals | 11 | 18,200 | 0.06% |
| Silvio Berlusconi | Milan, Italy | building ICU units | 11 | 5,900 | 0.19% |
| Oprah Winfrey | Montecito, California | hunger relief, other causes | 10 | 2,600 | 0.38% |
| George Kaiser | Tulsa, Oklahoma | economic relief, food, medical supplies | 10+ | 5,800 | 0.17%+ |
| Robert Kraft | Brookline, Massachusetts | medical supplies, meals | 7+ | 6,900 | 0.10%+ |
| Naguib Sawiris | Cairo, Egypt | economic relief, aid to government | 6.4 | 3,000 | 0.21% |
| Len Blavatnik | London, United Kingdom | hospitals | 6.2 | 18,600 | 0.03% |
| Arthur Blank | Atlanta, Georgia | community organizations | 5.8 | 5,200 | 0.11% |
| Ennio Doris | Tombolo, Italy | aid to government | 5.5 | 2,500 | 0.22% |
| Diego Della Valle | Sant" Elpidio A Mare, Italy | aid to government | 5.5 | 1,200 | 0.45% |
| Aliko Dangote | Lagos, Nigeria | aid to government | 5.2 | 7,500 | 0.07% |
| Brian Roberts | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | education | 5+ | 1,800 | 0.28%+ |
| Brian Chesky | San Francisco, California | economic relief, housing for first responders | 5 | 4,100 | 0.12% |
| JB Pritzker | Springfield, Illinois | community organizations | 4 | 3,400 | 0.12% |
| Mike Adenuga | Lagos, Nigeria | aid to government | 3.9 | 5,900 | 0.07% |
| Uday Kotak | Mumbai, India | aid to government | 3.3 | 10,800 | 0.03% |
| Benetton family | Treviso, Italy | hospital | 3.2 | 7,400 | 0.04% |
| Nathan Blecharczyk | San Francisco, California | economic relief | 3 | 4,100 | 0.07% |
| Joe Gebbia | San Francisco, California | economic relief | 3 | 4,100 | 0.07% |
| David Tepper | Miami Beach, Florida | community organizations | 2.6+ | 12,000 | 0.02%+ |
| Abdulsamad Rabiu | Lagos, Nigeria | central bank fund | 2.6 | 2,400 | 0.11% |
| Giorgio Armani | Milan, Italy | hospitals | 2.2 | 7,100 | 0.03% |
| Penny Pritzker | Chicago, Illinois | community organizations | 2+ | 2,700 | 0.07%+ |
| Jimmy Haslam | Knoxville, Tennessee | community organizations | 1.5 | 2,800 | 0.05% |
| Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone | Rome, Italy | hospitals | 1.1 | 2,200 | 0.05% |
| James Irsay | Carmel, Indiana | food bank, schools, masks | 1+ | 3,000 | 0.03%+ |
| Gayle Benson | New Orleans, Louisiana | community organizations | 1 | 3,200 | 0.03% |
| Sheryl Sandberg | Menlo Park, California | hunger relief | 1 | 1,600 | 0.06% |
| Kylie Jenner | Hidden Hills, California | medical supplies | 1 | 1,000 | 0.10% |
| Stephen Bisciotti | Millersville, Maryland | community organizations, hospitals | 1 | 4,200 | 0.02% |
| Jay-Z | New York, New York | aid for frontline workers, other causes | 1 | 1,000 | 0.10% |
| Jeffrey Lurie | Wynnewood, Pennsylvania | medical research | 1 | 2,700 | 0.04% |
| Stephen Ross | New York, New York | hunger relief | 0.5 | 7,600 | 0.01% |
| Janice McNair | Houston, Texas | community organizations | 0.5 | 4,000 | 0.01% |
| Donald Trump | Washington, D.C. | aid to government | 0.1 | 2,100 | 0.005% |
This article originally appeared on Forbes.
