A score of 10 is reserved for people who not only grew up poor but overcame significant obstacles in their climb to the top, such as George Soros, who survived the Nazi occupation of his native Hungary before immigrating to the U.S. People like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, who came from middle- or upper-middle class families, rank as 8s, while someone who inherited their entire fortune and has done nothing to manage or increase it ranks as a 1. Source of Wealth Hair products, tequila, Self Made. This is a list of individuals and couples who are U.S. citizens; as a result, we excluded extended families like the Waltons, controlling shareholders of Walmart, and excluded big givers like Hansjoerg Wyss, who lives in the U.S. but is a Swiss citizen. bindComponentToDiv( Who got this score: Warren Buffett, George Soros, Gordon Moore, Julian Robertson Jr., Amos Hostetter Jr., Lynn Schusterman, John Arnold and T.DennySanford. $(function() { But only twoChuck Feeney and Soros (who has not signed The Giving Pledge)have hit the mark so far. Bezos, the richest person on The Forbes 400 for the fourth straight year, received a score of 1 again despite announcing a $200 million pledge to the Smithsonian and another $200 million in distributions to political commentator Van Jones and chef Jose Andres to give to charities of their choosing. Gifts included $443 million to environmental organizations from the The Bezos Earth Fund, $100 million to former president Barack Obama's foundation and $96 million to nonprofits helping homeless families through the Bezos Day One Fund. "The remarkable growth in fortunes of the Forbes 400 stands out at a time of pandemic-induced economic upheaval," said Kerry A. Dolan, assistant managing editor for wealth atForbes. Leading the pack: Warren Buffett, whose annual summer gift of Berkshire Hathaway stock topped $4.1 billion this year. Of his $8 billion in donations, some $3.7 billion went to education, including $1 billion to his alma mater, Cornell. That's also where he's focused his philanthropy, with more than $400 million in gifts to universities and schools in the Golden State, in addition to the more than 57,000 acres of land he's donated as open space and protected parklands. Those receiving a philanthropic score of 4 (meaning they have given between 10 percent and 19.99 percent of their wealth) include Bill and Melinda Gates ($111 billion, #2), former New York City mayor and Bloomberg Philanthropies founder Michael R. Bloomberg ($55 billion, #14), Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus and his wife, Billi ($7.4 In those instances, we listed both names. ); his quest to give away more than 99% of his fortune, has given away virtually all of his fortune, "an effort to ensure the survival of the human species. For more details on the philanthropy score, please visit www.forbes.com/philanthropy-score. Warren Buffett is still the lists biggest giver after donating $4.1 billion worth of Berkshire Hathaway stock in June, helping bring his total lifetime giving to $44 billion. These top givers have continued to dole out big dollars. Residence Austin, Texas . One of the [Middle Eastern magnates] mentioned that in the Quran, it actually says the reason to talk about your philanthropy is [that] it encourages other people to do the same, he said. (Not to be outdone, Ronald donated his collection of European arms and armour to the Met in 2020. In 2021, we started with a list of over 750 candidates and got to work. In 2021, Bezos announced $1 billion in donations, the most he's given away since Amazon went public in 1997. Who got this score: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and154others. This happens in reporting. At times, our reporting on philanthropic giving received a similar response.