Top Entrepreneurs Who Are Also Philanthropists

Most people know that Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are brilliant entrepreneurs that have revolutionized their prospective industries.

But it turns out that successful entrepreneurs are also among the most generous — and successful — philanthropists.

According to a 2018 study by Fidelity Charitable, entrepreneurs donate more to charity on average than non-business owners. Fidelity Charitable is an independent public charity and America’s second-largest grantmaker.

The organization’s study looked at the giving habits and priorities of entrepreneurs.

According to the study, philanthropy remains an important concern for entrepreneurs. In the study, 79 percent said that charitable giving is a critical part of who they are, and 47 percent consider themselves philanthropists. In general, entrepreneurs also give more than others, with the median annual donation for an entrepreneur being 50 percent higher — $3,577 compared with $2,383.

Entrepreneurs also give more of their time than non-entrepreneurs do. About 66 percent of entrepreneurs volunteer two or more hours per month, compared with 55 percent of other donors who do so, according to the survey.

That trend was certainly reiterated this year when The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported on its annual rankings of the biggest philanthropists in America. The report shows that entrepreneur-philanthropists are once again taking center stage in the world of giving.

America’s biggest donors gave $24.7 billion to at least hundreds of nonprofits in 2020, according to the report.  

And yes, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos gave one of the biggest donations in history in 2020. But let’s talk about a few philanthropists making waves you might not know about.

Manoj Padaiyachi

The founder and president of Wealth Foundation, Manoj Padaiyach has built a foundation focused on social awareness and women empowerment in Ahmedabad, India.

Padaiyachi, who has receivedthe Youth Champion Award, has made important contributions to social development in India, one of the most populous countries in the world.

He is a mentor at Atal Innovations Mission, Initiative of Government of India, and also worked as an influencer for many prominent brands like Truecaller, Fastrack, Hike, ZoomIN, Viber, Microsoft, and many other brands.

His foundation introduced activities like Heritage walk, Sadness ko Phodenge, and Gujarat’s First Mega Conclave on Women Empowerment.

Craig Kielburger

The founder of WE Charity, one of the biggest and most successful charities in Canada, Craig Kielburger has been an activist and entrepreneur nearly his entire life.

It started when he was 12 years old reading a newspaper article about a Pakistani boy that was abused and murdered for speaking about against the brutal child labour conditions forced on him and his peers.

So 12-year-old Craig Kielburger traveled to India to see child labour first-hand and spent much of his teenage years focused on activism before earning an MBA at York University. He used his business degree to create Free The Children with his brother Marc Kielburger. Eventually, that became WE Charity.

Today, “WE Movement has become the largest youth empowerment organization across the globe, changing the lives of over one million children. WE Movement has built over 650 schools and provides educational opportunities that would otherwise not exist to more than 55,000 children daily.”

Marc Benioff

The founder and CEO of cloud computing company Salesforce.com, Marc Benioff is also the founder of Salesforce.com Foundation.

Benioff has a personal approach to philanthropy he calls the  “1-1-1 model.”

In this idea, Benioff asks companies to contribute to their communities. How much exactly? Well, he asks for 1 percent of their product, 1 percent of their equity, and 1 percent of their employees’ hours.

This model builds philanthropic ideals right into a business’ fiscal strategy, Benioff says.

Through the Salesforce Foundation, the 1-1-1 model has been used to help hospitals and organizations devoted to children’s health in the San Francisco area. And other organizations are taking note of the success. The model is being adopted by many other companies.