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A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide for wealthy investors and consumers. Register to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
America’s 50 largest philanthropists gave a whopping $22.4 billion to charity in 2025, according to the latest annual rankings from the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Media titan Michael Bloomberg led the Philanthropy 50 for the third year in a row, donating $4.3 billion to support the arts, public health and other causes.
Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott is notably absent from the ranking. Scott announced on her blog in early December that she had distributed nearly $7.2 billion to approximately 225 organizations over the past 12 months. She has donated more than $26 billion to nonprofits since 2020, according to a website for her philanthropic organization, Yield Giving.
Maria Di Mento, editor-in-chief of the Chronicle, told Inside Wealth that Scott was excluded because her representatives refused to confirm how much she contributed to its donor-advised funds, which are popular financial vehicles for charitable giving. The Philanthropy 50 counts donations to donor-advised funds, or DAFs, and foundations, but does not include disbursements from those funds to avoid double counting, Di Mento said.
As Scott publicizes his giving, ultra-wealthy philanthropists have become increasingly secretive about their charitable giving, according to Di Mento, who has worked on the rankings for 21 years.
“I think the desire for privacy has increased in recent years because the ultra-rich are under much more scrutiny than before,” she said. “While I think there has always been some resentment toward the ultra-rich, that resentment, particularly very recently, has grown by leaps and bounds.”
She said philanthropists regularly tell her they fear being hounded by nonprofits hungry for funding.
“Donors tell me this all the time: When they attach their name to a donation, they are bombarded by large fundraisers from other organizations,” she said. “It’s a very real concern. Some of these people, believe it or not, don’t have a lot of staff.”
Only 19 members of the Forbes 400, a list of the richest people in America, appear in the Philanthropy 50. Elon Musk and Larry Ellison, last year’s Forbes 400 favorites, do not appear in the Chronicle’s ranking despite their status as centibillionaires.
Di Mento noted that this proportion has remained constant even as the ranks of the country’s richest have grown richer.
“I think there are two ways of looking at it, and they’re both true,” she said. “I think a lot of the ultra-rich don’t give as much as they could, but the other problem is there’s no law requiring them to disclose their donations.”
While many members of the Forbes 400 likely donate money, the Chronicle often requires cooperation from billionaires to verify how much they have given or to whom they have given. For example, Musk revealed in a regulatory filing that he offered around $210,000. Tesla shares worth nearly $100 million in December to “certain charities.” Without knowing the recipients and whether they were affiliated with political lobbying or campaigns, the Chronicle could not count the donation in the list, Di Mento said.
Although Ellison has appeared on the list in the past, his representatives have not cooperated with the Chronicle in years, according to Di Mento.
THE Oracle The billionaire pledged in 2010 to give away at least 95% of his net worth. Last summer, it shifted its commitment to focus its resources on technology research rather than traditional nonprofits.
“We don’t really know what he’s giving or what he’s giving anymore,” Di Mento said of Ellison.