Warren Buffett, who leads Berkshire Hathaway Inc., is the most generous U.S. billionaire, according to Conde Nast Portfolio magazine.
Buffett, 78, with a net worth of $52 billion, gave $46.1 billion from 2002 to 2006, although no donations were disclosed for 2007-2008, according to the magazine’s “Generosity Index,” which ranks the billionaires’ philanthropy relative to their wealth.
His endowment, the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, has $458 million in assets. The list will be published in Portfolio’s November issue. Buffett owns about a third of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire’s A shares, which have fallen about 20 percent this year.
“Many of the nation’s richest people have become a lot less rich in recent months,” Duff McDonald, a contributing editor for the magazine, said in a statement. “But their largesse is taking on a heightened importance amid the current economic turmoil.”
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Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates, 52, was ranked second, with $10 million in donations in 2007 and 2008. Gates, who has a net worth of $59 billion, gave $3.7 billion from 2002 to 2006. His family foundation has $38.9 billion.
The list ranks the 50 wealthiest donors, and includes who gives the least and who refuses to say. Billionaire investors Eli Broad, 75, George Soros, 78, and John Kluge, 94, round out the top five.
