Stephen Ross (Foto: RealDeal.com)
London – Now that 2013 is over, the year’s most generous celebrities and business figures can be revealed by SPEAR’s magazine, in association with leading wealth consultancy company WealthInsight. The research shows that 10 of the biggest multimillionaire donors pledged over $20 billion to charitable causes as many joined Bill Gates and Warren Buffett’s Giving Pledge. The pledge is a commitment by the world’s wealthiest individuals and families to dedicate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes.
Business leaders weren’t the only donors, with celebrities including JK Rowling, Oprah Winfrey, Leonardo DiCaprio, Alec Baldwin and Taylor Swift donating over $70 million between them to charity. The research also showed that cultural, academic, health and humanitarian charities were the most popular among multimillionaires accounting for 71% of all global multimillionaire donations in the year.
UK millionaires showed a slightly different pattern to global millionaire donations with healthcare charities coming out on top. According to WealthInsight’s Oliver Williams, this is not the only difference: “Another habit of UK millionaire donors is that they have a more international approach to aid than most nationalities. Issues such as climate change and international humanitarian issues feature high on the priority list.”
Multimillionaires from Europe and the US remain the most generous donors
“Globally, multimillionaires from Europe and the US remain the most generous donors. But in years to come, we should hope to see competition coming from the rapidly growing wealthy of China, India and the Middle East as they also sign up to giving pledges.” Josh Spero, editor of SPEAR’s magazine, says: “The Warren Buffet and Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge has had a huge impact on charitable donations from millionaires, which have continued to grow in 2013. Of course, those donations are spread out over the rest of the donors’ lives, so these gifts need to be seen in the long term.”
“We would expect charitable donations to continue to grow in 2014 as the global economy gains momentum and a culture of giving spreads around the world. Certain countries lack a deep philanthropic culture but as their wealthiest citizens see the kudos that attaches around the world to giving, they become more likely to do it.” (Spears/mc/hfu)
