Forbes just dropped its annual list of America's top 25 philanthropists.
Let's start with the headline: MacKenzie Scott gave away $7.2 billion in a single year.
One year.
That's more than Elon Musk, Larry Page, Larry Ellison, and Jeff Bezos have donated in their ENTIRE lifetimes COMBINED.
In less than seven years since her divorce from Bezos, Scott has donated $26.4 billion to more than 2,500 organizations.
Howard University found out they were getting $80 million with an email. That's it. No gala. And no ribbon-cutting.
She's given away 46% of her net worth.
Source: Forbes
Jeff Bezos, worth $250 billion, has parted with 2%.
Forbes is explicit about who didn't make the list: Elon Musk and Larry Page, the two richest people on the planet, together worth over $1 trillion.
The Leaderboard
Warren Buffett, 95 years old and freshly retired as Berkshire CEO, tops the all-time list with $68.3 billion donated = 32% of his net worth.
Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates follow at $52.6 billion combined.
The top 25 philanthropists on this list have collectively given away $275 billion.
Which sounds enormous until you realize that represents just 14% of their combined fortunes.
And that percentage is actually shrinking year over year, hitting its lowest point since 2021.
So yes, the rich are giving more in raw dollars. But as a share of their wealth? They're falling behind their own accumulation.
Look at who gives the most proportionally and a pattern emerges.
George Soros has given away 76% of his net worth.
MacKenzie Scott, 46%.
Lynn and Stacy Schusterman, 47%.
John and Laura Arnold, 44%.
Source: Forbes
Basically: the billionaires who built their wealth from scratch.... the founders, the builders... are often the least willing to let it go.
Meanwhile, women (whether solo or as part of couples) dominate the upper tiers of proportional giving.
Forbes notes this isn't a coincidence: research suggests women tend to give faster and more generously, and those who didn't create the wealth personally feel less psychological ownership over it, making them more willing to take philanthropic risks.
But you don't have to be MacKenzie Scott to matter in this equation!
Scott’s model is actually simple: find the people closest to the problem, trust them completely, and get out of the way.
You can do that with $100.
You can do that with 3 hours on a Saturday.
You can do that by mentoring one founder who doesn't have the network you do.
By making one introduction you've been sitting on.
By showing up for one organization that's doing the work you believe in.
Most of us will never write a $7 billion check.
But we all have something to give.
Time. Skills. Attention. A platform, however small.
The ability to vote, to advocate, to show up for causes that need bodies in the room!