Oprah Winfrey Debuts as First African-American On BusinessWeek's Annual Ranking of 'Americas Top Philanthropists'

Oprah Winfrey Debuts as First African-American On BusinessWeek's Annual Ranking of 'Americas Top Philanthropists' Warren Buffett Vaults from No. 26 to No. 3; Bill and Melinda Gates Continue Reign as America's Top Givers NEW YORK, Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Television talk-show host Oprah Winfrey debuts at No. 40 on BusinessWeek's annual ranking of America's top givers. Oprah's $151 million in gifts and pledges to various charities earns her the distinction of being the first African-American on BusinessWeek's list. Another notable newcomer this year is Veronica Atkins, the widow of Dr. Robert C. Atkins, who pledged her entire $500 million fortune to end the "di-obesity" -- diabetes and obesity -- epidemic made famous by her late husband. In addition to Oprah, this year's billion-dollar-club members include No. 1 givers Bill and Melinda Gates, the world's largest international donors, who made history this year by giving their estimated $3 billion Microsoft Corp. dividend to their foundation. It's one of the largest donations in history by a living donor. To put it into perspective, that one gift is three times bigger than the amount that America's richest family, the descendants of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. founder Sam Walton, has given during their entire lifetimes, according to the BusinessWeek ranking. The death of Warren Buffett's wife Susie catapults America's second richest man to No. 3 on BusinessWeek's third annual ranking of the Top 50 U.S. philanthropists, up from No. 26 last year (for the purposes of the BusinessWeek rankings, married couples are generally treated as a single entity). The bulk of Susie's Berkshire Hathaway stake-$2.5 billion-is pouring into the foundation that she and Warren shared. Others donors on BusinessWeek's list include: Gordon and Betty Moore (No. 2); George Soros (No. 4); Michael and Susan Dell (No. 7); Michael Bloomberg (No. 13); and David Geffen (No. 31). In addition to its annual ranking, this year BusinessWeek took a look at some well-known celebrity givers. In "Star Power of the Purse," BusinessWeek singles out Angelina Jolie, Steven Spielberg, Michael J. Fox and Bill Cosby for their generous donations to worthwhile causes. And while celebrities and the extremely wealthy do give generously, BusinessWeek points out that lower and middle-income Americans are the real unsung heroes of philanthropy: Families that have household incomes of $100,000 or less contribute 59% of all philanthropic dollars, according to a study by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. "Ordinary People, Extraordinary Gifts" highlights a surprising number of America's non-wealthy, who take giving to an unusual extreme. Since 1991, 62-year-old Albert Lexie has donated over $90,000 to the Free Care Fund at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, saved over the course of many years from the tips he makes polishing shoes at the hospital and at local businesses. To suss out the new entrants on this year's list, and to create the overall ranking, BusinessWeek analyzed public records and conducted scores of interviews with community foundations, nonprofit experts, billionaires, fund-raisers, and wealth watchers. To qualify for the Top 50, philanthropists had to have given or pledged $116 million in the past five years-$21 million more than the minimum last year. BusinessWeek relied heavily on news reports, foundation filings, and interviews to compile this year's ranking. Resources included The Chronicle of Philanthropy, the Forbes 400 Richest Americans, Prospect Information Network, and nonprofit GuideStar's online database of IRS foundation filings. Using these data, the magazine ranked the 50 Most Generous Philanthropists by what they've pledged and given in the past five years (2000-2004). BusinessWeek also ranked the most generous corporate philanthropists. The magazine polled companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index and the survey depended on voluntary disclosure of data by 203 responding S&P 500 companies. Topping this year's list of cash givers are Wal-Mart Stores, Ford Motor, Altria Group, and Johnson & Johnson. BusinessWeek's cover story, "America's Top Givers," which includes the ranking of the 50 Most Generous Philanthropists, the top Corporate Givers and methodology is available online at http://www.businessweek.com/ and in the Nov. 29th issue on newsstands November 22nd. THE 50 MOST GENEROUS PHILANTHROPISTS Rank Name Background 2000- Giving 2004 Estimated Remaining as a Given Lifetime Net Worth** % of or pledged Giving* MILLIONS Net MILLIONS MILLIONS Worth *** 1 Bill and Melinda Microsoft $10,085 $27,976 $48,000 58 % Gates co-founder 2 Gordon and Betty Intel co- 7,046 7,300 3,800 192 Moore founder 3 Warren Buffett Berkshire Hathaway CEO 2,721 2,730 41,000 8 4 George Soros Investor 2,301 5,171 7,200 72 5 James and Virginia American 1,346 1,564 716 218 Stowers Century founder 6 Eli and Edythe Broad SunAmerica, KB 1,333 1,570 6,000 26 Home founder 7 Michael and Susan Dell founder 933 1,230 14,200 9 Dell 8 Alfred Mann Medical devices 830 1,000 1,400 71 9 Paul Allen Microsoft 735 831 20,000 4 co-founder 10 Walton Family Family of 650 1,000 95,800 1 Wal-Mart founder 11 Ruth Lilly Eli Lilly Heiress 560 750 300 250 12 Veronica Atkins Widow of Dr. Robert Atkins 500 500 500 100 13 Michael Bloomberg Bloomberg 490 597 5,000 12 founder; NYC mayor 14 Bernard Marcus Home Depot 432 550 2,000 28 co-founder 15 Donald Bren Real estate 427 437 4,300 10 16 Jeffrey Skoll Ex-President of 386 419 4,400 10 eBay 17 Patrick and Lore Harp IDG founder 365 380 2,000 19 McGovern 18 Pierre and Pam eBay chairman, 351 421 10,400 4 Omidyar founder 19 H.F. (Gerry) and Former Suburban 349 375 825 45 Marguerite Lenfest Cable owner 20 Kirk Kerkorian Investor 347 550 5,800 9 21 Sidney Kimmel Jones Apparel 341 473 750 63 chairman 22 Irwin and Joan Jacobs Qualcomm co- 312 450 1,700 26 founder 23 Robert Meyerhoff Real estate 304 305 n.a. n.a. developer 24 John Kluge Metromedia 301 751 11,000 7 founder 25 Clayton and MaryAnn Former Iams 297 322 1,800 18 Mathile chairman, CEO 26 Jon Huntsman Huntsman founder, 290 495 2,300 22 chairman 27 Frank and Jane Batten Landmark Comm. 285 315 1,000 32 founder 28 Sandy and Joan Weill Citigroup 280 315 1,400 23 chairman 29 George Kaiser Oil & gas, 275 287 4,000 7 banking, real estate 30 William and Claudia BEA Systems 251 251 75 335 Coleman co-founder 31 David Geffen DreamWorks 233 260 4,400 6 co-founder 32 Tom Monaghan Domino's Pizza 232 450 500 90 founder 33 Phillip Anschutz Anschutz Corp. 226 450 5,200 9 34 Peter Lewis Progressive 212 287 1,600 18 chairman 35 Arthur Blank Home Depot 183 206 1,200 17 co-founder 36 Ted and Joan Waitt Gateway founder 183 360 1,400 26 37 Charles and Helen Charles Schwab 174 231 2,800 8 Schwab 38 Alberto Vilar Investor 162 225 950 24 39 Sidney Frank Sidney Frank 160 160 1,600 10 Importing 40 Oprah Winfrey Harpo chairman 151 175 1,300 13 41 Catherine Reynolds Student loan 150 150 550 27 business 42 William and Alice AMF Bowling 140 185 120 154 Goodwin chairman 43 Gary and Frances Lands' End 133 136 1,000 14 Comer founder 44 Henry and Susan Broadcom 124 174 1,500 12 Samueli chairman, co-founder 45 Ted Turner CNN founder 121 1,200 1,900 63 46 Haim and Cheryl Saban Saban Capital 121 128 2,200 6 Group 47 Ira and Mary Lou Fulton Homes 118 131 355 37 Fulton 48 Kenneth Behring Real estate 118 118 420 28 49 David and Cheryl PeopleSoft 117 200 1,100 18 Duffield co-founder 50 Martha Ingram Ingram Industries 116 754 2,500 30 *Based on public records and interviews with donors **Based on BusinessWeek estimates and Forbes 400 list ***Donations as a percent of remaining net worth. Data: BusinessWeek, GuideStar, Chronicle of Philanthropy Source: BusinessWeek CONTACT: Kimberley Quinn - 212-512-2882 Heather Carpenter - 212-512-2854 Web site: http://www.businessweek.com/ ------- Profile: International Entertainment