2025 Major Philanthropic Investments: A Year of Historic Giving by Billionaires
Oct 20, 2025
As 2025 draws to a close, the philanthropic landscape has witnessed unprecedented generosity from the world's wealthiest individuals. From MacKenzie Scott's continued trust-based giving to Bill Gates' historic $200 billion commitment, this year has redefined what transformational philanthropy looks like. Here's a comprehensive roundup of the most significant philanthropic investments that shaped 2025.
Bill Gates: The Largest Philanthropic Commitment in Modern History
In May 2025, Bill Gates announced he would donate virtually all of his wealth—approximately $200 billion—over the next 20 years before shuttering the Gates Foundation on December 31, 2045. This represents the largest philanthropic commitment in modern history, doubling the foundation's spending from $5 billion to $10 billion annually.
The Gates Foundation will focus on three main goals: ending preventable deaths of mothers and babies, eradicating deadly infectious diseases, and lifting hundreds of millions of people around the world out of poverty. The announcement comes amid concerns about U.S. government cuts to international aid programs, though Gates stated his decision was planned independently.
"People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that 'he died rich' will not be one of them," Gates wrote in his announcement.
MacKenzie Scott: Setting the Standard for Trust-Based Philanthropy
MacKenzie Scott continued her revolutionary approach to giving in 2025, donating over $19.25 billion to date across 2,450 nonprofits through her Yield Giving foundation. Her 2025 contributions included several major gifts:
$70 million to UNCF: Supporting a pooled endowment for 37 historically Black colleges and universities as part of a broader $1 billion campaign to address funding disparities
$63 million to Morgan State University: The largest single private gift in the school's history, surpassing her previous $40 million donation
$50 million to Native Forward Scholars Fund: Supporting Native American undergraduate and graduate students with scholarships and wraparound services
$42 million to 10,000 Degrees: A Bay Area nonprofit expanding college access for low-income and largely non-white students, marking the largest gift in the organization's 45-year history
A three-year study by the Center for Effective Philanthropy found Scott's giving has been "transformational" for nonprofits, with organizations managing the funds responsibly and investing in endowments and infrastructure. Notably, recipients who received donations in 2020 have spent just 60% of their gifts, demonstrating careful stewardship.
Michael Bloomberg: America's Top Donor for Two Consecutive Years
Michael Bloomberg gave away $3.7 billion in 2024, making him America's largest individual donor for the second consecutive year. His philanthropy spans five key areas: the arts, education, the environment, public health, and government innovation.
Major 2024-2025 contributions included:
$1 billion to Johns Hopkins University: Making medical school free for most students and increasing financial aid for nursing and public-health students
$600 million to HBCUs: Boosting medical-school endowments at four historically Black colleges and universities
Climate commitments: Bloomberg Philanthropies pledged to ensure the United States meets its global climate obligations following the federal government's withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, including covering the funding gap to UN Climate Change
"I've never understood people who wait until they die to give away their wealth. Why deny yourself the satisfaction?" Bloomberg wrote, explaining his philosophy of giving during his lifetime.
Warren Buffett: Over $60 Billion in Lifetime Giving
Warren Buffett donated $6 billion in Berkshire Hathaway shares in June 2025—his largest annual donation—bringing his lifetime charitable giving to over $60 billion. This amount is "substantially more than my entire net worth in 2006," Buffett noted.
The 94-year-old investor distributed the shares to five foundations:
$4.6 billion to the Gates Foundation (the largest portion)
Funds to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation
Donations to three charities run by his children
Buffett plans to donate more than 99% of his wealth—currently valued at around $150 billion—during his lifetime or upon his death, with nearly all of his remaining wealth after death going to a new charitable trust overseen by his three children. As co-founder of the Giving Pledge, Buffett has inspired hundreds of billionaires to commit at least half their wealth to charitable causes.
Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan: A Controversial Pivot
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative underwent significant transformation in 2025, with the organization winding down its social equity work and discontinuing its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, shifting to a "science-first philanthropy" focused primarily on biomedical research.
In May 2025, CZI suspended funding for dozens of Bay Area nonprofits working on economic inclusion, housing affordability, and other social issues, with some organizations losing up to a third of their funding. The foundation also announced the closure of The Primary School, which Chan founded in 2016.
Despite the pivot, CZI has given away nearly $5 billion in grants to date and continues major investments in scientific research, including three Chan Zuckerberg Biohubs focused on cell biology, synthetic biology, and inflammation research.
Rich and Nancy Kinder: A $10 Billion Commitment to Houston
Houston billionaires Rich and Nancy Kinder reaffirmed their pledge to donate 95% of their $11.2 billion fortune—more than $10 billion—with an emphasis on transforming their home city through parks, arts, education, and quality of life initiatives.
The Kinders, who were among the earliest signatories to The Giving Pledge in 2011, have concentrated their philanthropy locally rather than pursuing global projects. Their recent announcement came alongside the groundbreaking of an $18.5 million expansion of Houston's historic Emancipation Park, a park founded by former slaves in 1872.
Rich Kinder, co-founder and executive chairman of Kinder Morgan, one of North America's largest energy infrastructure companies, explained their philosophy: "I think we'd all like to leave the world a little better place than we found it. Whatever wealth you accumulate is the result of a lot of other people helping you along the way."
Their giving strategy has focused on three core areas: education, urban green space, and quality of life. Major contributions include:
$82 million and counting to build Memorial Park's massive land bridges
$77 million to fund the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University
$86 million for a new building for modern art at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston
$34 million to Buffalo Bayou Park
Discovery Green: The couple helped create this downtown park for roughly $25 million
Nancy Kinder describes parks as "the great equalizer" and their "happy place." The couple's approach emphasizes public-private partnerships with 30-40 year maintenance agreements to ensure long-term sustainability—critical in Houston, which ranks near the bottom of major U.S. cities in public spending for parks at $69 per resident.
"We decided early on, our core principles would be that we would invest most of our philanthropy in Houston and then that we would try to concentrate on really three areas that we thought really needed help," Rich said. "So we decided beforehand, our core concepts would be that we would invest most of our philanthropy in Houston."
Ruth Gottesman: $1 Billion to Eliminate Medical School Debt
In February 2024, Dr. Ruth Gottesman made one of the most transformational gifts in medical education history: $1 billion to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx to make tuition free for all students in perpetuity.
The 93-year-old professor emerita of pediatrics and chair of Einstein's board of trustees made the donation using Berkshire Hathaway stock left to her by her late husband, David "Sandy" Gottesman, a protégé of Warren Buffett and early investor in Berkshire Hathaway.
"He left me, unbeknownst to me, a whole portfolio of Berkshire Hathaway stock," Gottesman told The New York Times. "I wanted to fund students at Einstein so that they would receive free tuition."
The gift is believed to be the largest donation ever made to a medical school in the United States. Students who were fourth-years at the time were reimbursed for their spring 2024 semester, and beginning in August 2024, all students receive free tuition. Previously, tuition at Einstein was $59,000 annually, with many graduates facing over $200,000 in debt.
Located in the Bronx, New York City's poorest borough, the donation aims to remove financial barriers for talented students from diverse backgrounds who might not otherwise consider medical school. Gottesman had one condition: the school must keep the name Albert Einstein College of Medicine. "We've got the gosh darn name," she said. "We've got Albert Einstein."
Other Notable Giving in 2025
Several other philanthropists made headlines with significant contributions:
Reed Hastings and Patty Quillin: Ranked No. 2 on the Chronicle of Philanthropy's list with over $1 billion donated
Michael and Susan Dell: Also contributed over $1 billion through their foundation
The State of Billionaire Philanthropy
According to Forbes, the top 25 philanthropists' total lifetime giving rose 14% to $241 billion in 2024, though charitable giving hasn't kept pace with the growth of their fortunes. America's 1,135 billionaires, sitting on a collective $5.7 trillion, have publicly donated or pledged around $185 billion over the past decade—only about 3.25% of their total wealth.
A 2025 report from the Institute for Policy Studies examining the Giving Pledge's 15-year history found that only one of the living original 57 signatories has given away half their wealth since the pledge began, with many Bay Area billionaires giving away less than 20%. The original 2010 Pledgers' collective net worth has increased by 283% since signing, and roughly 80% of an estimated $206 billion donated has gone into private foundations rather than directly to operating charities.
As the era of billionaire baby boomer men leading philanthropy evolves, experts predict women like MacKenzie Scott and Melinda French Gates will become increasingly prominent mega-donors, pioneering trust-based and direct giving strategies.
Looking Forward
The philanthropic landscape of 2025 has been marked by both unprecedented generosity and significant shifts in approach. From Gates' historic spend-down commitment to Scott's transformational unrestricted gifts, from Bloomberg's data-driven initiatives to Buffett's steady annual distributions, billionaire philanthropy continues to evolve in response to urgent global needs.
As government funding for social programs faces cutbacks and global challenges mount, the role of private philanthropy becomes increasingly critical—and increasingly scrutinized. Whether these massive investments can truly address systemic inequalities remains an open question, but 2025 has undeniably demonstrated that the world's wealthiest individuals are willing to put significant portions of their fortunes toward trying.
Sheena Link is the co-founder and COO of PureGrant, a fundraising tool for nonprofits.