The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual list of the biggest charitable donations from individuals or their foundations totaled $5 billion in 2025. Topping the list was $2 billion from Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny, followed by a $746.7 million donation from Warren Buffett and a $500 million pledge from the mother and stepfather of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Nearly 40% of the $5 billion total came from the Knights’ gift to Oregon Health & Science University. More than $1.3 billion, or about one-quarter of the total, came from four donations to Buffett family foundations.
The top three gifts went toward cancer care and research, a private grantmaker, and an international effort to fight hunger and malnutrition among women and children. Two donations totaling $600 million went to university athletics programs. One gift of $300 million backed the construction of a new hospital and an effort to expand the health care workforce in South Dakota. Another gift of about $200 million went to an art museum for an expansion project.
Five of the donors are multibillionaires and their combined net worth is roughly $190 billion.
Support for cancer research
Phil Knight, whose net worth Forbes pegs at more than $31 billion, and his wife, Penny, gave their $2 billion donation in August to Oregon Health & Science University to expand clinical trials and basic cancer research at the Knight Cancer Institute and bolster a range of support services for cancer patients and their families, including psychological, genetic, and financial counseling, nutritional care, and survivorship support, among other offerings.
Their gift was the result of a long relationship between OHSU professor Brian Druker, one of the country’s most celebrated cancer researchers, and the Knights, which began nearly two decades ago. Impressed with Druker’s work, the couple gave OHSU three nine-figure donations before this year’s windfall, starting with their $100 million naming gift in 2008. They have given Oregon Health & Science a total of at least $2.7 billion over the years.
Buffett supports family foundation
The Knights’ donation is followed by a gift from the legendary investor Warren Buffett, who gave 1.5 million shares of Berkshire Hathaway stock valued at $746.7 million in November to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named for his late first wife, who died in 2004.
Buffett, whose net worth is estimated by Forbes at more than $146 billion, created the grantmaker in 1964 to manage the family’s charitable giving, and it remains a family affair. Two of his three children serve on its board, and it is led by his former son-in-law. The foundation primarily backs women’s reproductive health. It also provides college scholarships for students in Nebraska, where the family is from.
The donation, along with three other Buffett contributions on the list, is a special gift that Buffett announced in November rather than one of the annual contributions he makes to the foundation and several other grantmakers, which are payments toward multibillion-dollar pledges he announced in 2006.
A pledge to UNICEF
Following the Knights’ and Buffett’s gifts is a donation from two lesser-known philanthropists, the late Jackie Bezos and her husband, Mike, the mother and stepfather of billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The couple invested $245,000 in Amazon when Jeff Bezos launched the company in 1995, and while their net worth is unknown, it is likely considerable.
The couple pledged $500 million to UNICEF USA to back its Child Nutrition Fund and to match gifts from other donors for the effort. The fund aims to increase access to healthy, nutritious food for children and women in need around the world.
They announced the pledge several months before Jackie Bezos died in August at age 78. A longtime supporter of education programs, Jackie Bezos established the Bezos Scholars Program, the Aspen Challenge, and Students Rebuild, all of which are education programs for various age groups. She also led the Bezos Family Foundation, which she and her husband launched in 2000.
Mike Bezos spent 32 years working as an engineer and manager with the oil and gas giant Exxon Mobil before devoting his time to the family’s philanthropy.
Dells’ $6 billion pledge
Missing from the list is a $6.25 billion pledge Michael and Susan Dell announced in December to put $250 into investment accounts for 25 million American children under 10 who live in ZIP codes where the annual median family income is $150,000 or less. The gift isn’t included on the list because it is not clear the money will be given to a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Dan Stasiewksi, a Dell Foundation spokesman, told the Chronicle that the details are still being hashed out but that the money “will go to the U.S. Department of the Treasury to be distributed to individual accounts securely and accurately.” He said the Dells plan to give the money through various giving vehicles but declined to specify which ones.
The Chronicle’s annual rankings are based on the biggest publicly announced gifts. The tally does not include contributions of artwork or gifts from anonymous donors. In March, the Chronicle will unveil the Philanthropy 50, its annual ranking of the 50 biggest donors, a list based on philanthropists’ total contributions in 2025 rather than individual gifts. To learn about other big donations, see its database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly.
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This article was provided to The Associated Press by The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Maria Di Mento is a senior editor at the Chronicle. Email: maria.dimento@philanthropy.com. The AP and the Chronicle receive support from the Lilly Endowment for coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits and are solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
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