The USA is one generous nation. Americans donated a record $471 billion (£327bn) to good causes in 2020, according to the Giving USA Foundation, perhaps unsurprisingly in a year defined by COVID-19 and racial justice efforts. And some of the nation's richest gave away billions, propelling themselves onto the list of the most deep-pocketed Americans in history. Click or scroll through the billionaire Americans who have given away the most money over the years.

Like the majority of billionaires in this round-up, 88-year-old Julian Robertson has signed the Giving Pledge, promising to donate most of his wealth to good causes, including national parks, military families and stem cell research. Worth $4.5 billion, the top investor and hedge fund manager has given away $1.1 billion to date according to Forbes.

Michael Dell has endowed the foundation he set up with his wife Susan in 1999 with more than $1.1 billion. The organization works hard to alleviate poverty and promote entrepreneurship in parts of the US, India and South Africa. Like many of the mega-rich during the coronavirus pandemic, Dell has also donated millions – $100 million to be exact – to help small businesses and fund treatment research.

Billionaire industrialist and conservative political donor David Koch passed away in August 2019, and has since been remembered for his philanthropy, although critics say some of his donations were designed to promote a free market, low-tax agenda. He gifted $1.2 billion to numerous causes and institutions, bankrolling medical research, criminal justice reform and universities.

Ted Turner hit the headlines in 1997 when he announced an unprecedented donation of $1 billion to the United Nations (UN). However, his gift to the UN, which he hoped could pay off America's arrears, was rejected as the UN could not accept donations from private individuals or companies, only countries. And so Turner used the money to set up the United Nations Foundation, which supports causes that work towards the UN's aims. The media mogul has also made sizable contributions to non-profits including Planned Parenthood, the Atlanta Ballet and St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. Turner has also signed the Giving Pledge.

The late Marion and Herbert Sandler founded savings and loans company Golden West Financial in 1963 and turned it into a formidable money-making machine. During their lifetimes, the Sandlers donated more than $1.3 billion to a wide range of causes such as civil liberties and protecting the environment. The couple also donated $30 million to the launch of ProPublica, an investigative journalism site that was the first online platform to win a Pulitzer Prize.

A hedge fund whiz hoping to change the world for the better, in 2012 John Arnold retired at just 38 to devote his life to philanthropy and giving away his billion-dollar fortune through the foundation he set up with his wife Laura. By 2013, the couple had already parted with $1.2 billion, and having committed to giving away most of their wealth through the Giving Pledge, they’ll likely give away billions more throughout their lifetimes. In 2020 alone the couple gave away $567 million, with 85% going to their own foundation.

Chemicals tycoon Jon Huntsman Sr. (pictured right with Larry King in 2003), who died in 2018, was one of the nation's most altruistic billionaires. During his lifetime, the rags-to-riches executive donated at least $1.8 billion to charity, most notably to fund cancer research, higher education and aid to Armenia following a devastating earthquake in 1988.

Pierre Omidyar was the youngest person to have given away $1 billion when he hit the milestone in 2012 aged 45. So far the eBay founder has contributed more than $1.5 billion to the Omidyar Network, a “philanthropic investment firm” that supports both profit and non-profit organizations predominantly in the tech sector. While that money doesn’t exclusively benefit charitable causes, Omidyar has stacked up the donations over the years, and has given away a large chunk of his fortune to help others. In 2020 alone Omidyar gave $441 million to various causes.

Many philanthropists choose to support myriad causes, but mutual fund maestro James Stowers, who died in 2014, funneled all his charity cash into the Stowers Institute for Medical Research. His genetic research institution in Kansas City received a gift totaling almost $2 billion upon his death, and the move made him and wife Virginia two of the first people to have fulfilled the Giving Pledge.

Like fellow Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Paul Allen was big on philanthropy. The late Silicon Valley veteran gave away over $2.3 billion over the course of his lifetime, which has financed trailblazing medical research, wildlife conservation projects, arts initiatives, and a number of other projects through one of his legacies, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.

Since 1994, hedge fund and math supremo Jim Simons has given $2.7 billion to good causes according to Forbes. Simons has his own charitable foundation, which supports a diverse set of health and educational initiatives throughout the US. The organization is perhaps most famous for its two magazines, Quanta and Spectrum, which cover math and autism respectively. That said, Simons was named in the Paradise Papers in 2017, which revealed he had investments in a trust in the tax haven of Bermuda, worth $8 billion in 2010, that he had tried to keep from the public.

Unlike many billionaire benefactors, Nike founder and chairman emeritus Phil Knight has given directly to organizations rather than through a foundation. Major recipients of Knight's largesse include Stanford University and the OHSU Cancer Institute. More recently, alongside two other former Nike CEOs, Knight has donated $15 million towards coronavirus relief efforts such as the Oregon Food Bank. Like a number of philanthropists in this round-up, Knight intends on giving the bulk of his wealth – which currently sits at $48.2 billion – away before he dies.

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It may be a stretch to call J. Paul Getty generous, given his reluctance to pay his kidnapped grandson's ransom and general penny-pinching ways, but the oil baron was certainly philanthropic. Getty bequeathed $700 million – the equivalent of $3.2 billion in today’s money – in 1976 to fund the family's art museum in Los Angeles. 

Read more about J. Paul Getty's extraordinary life with all the money in the world

As well as being the only person to build two Fortune 500 companies in different industries, Eli Broad is a seasoned philanthropist. During his lifetime, the Bronx-born billionaire has donated around $4 billion to worthy causes, funding educational grants and arts initiatives for the most part. One of Broad’s most recent donations was a record-breaking $100 million gift to Yale’s Business School, which will bankroll a tuition-free master’s course for education leaders.

The owner of Oklahoma-based Kaiser-Francis Oil, George Kaiser is renowned for his modest lifestyle and generosity. The Tulsa businessman has put more than $4 billion of his own cash into the family foundation, which is committed to providing disadvantaged children with equal opportunities. Kaiser’s most recent donation was actually rejected – the billionaire made a $2,800 contribution to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, only for it to be returned on the basis that the Democrats would not be accepting money from executives of fossil fuel companies. 

The one-time richest person in Utah, medical device inventor James LeVoy Sorenson, who presided over a group of 32 companies, bequeathed $4.5 billion to his charitable foundation upon his death in 2008, Forbes estimated. The Beehive State benefitted immensely from the billionaire calling it home, with local children’s charities and education facilities receiving large portions of Sorenson’s fortune. 

The patriarch of the Hilton hotel dynasty, Barron Hilton pledged to leave 97% of his estate to the family's charitable foundation, to which he had already channeled $1.2 billion. Following his death in September 2019, another $3.4 billion was gifted to the organization, bringing his lifetime giving to around $4.6 billion. 

Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan planned to ramp up their giving in 2017, when Zuckerberg announced that he would be selling up to 75 million of his Facebook shares to raise up to $13 billion for the pair’s foundation. However, the Facebook founder brought the plan to a halt in 2018 when the company's stock price dropped, after raising $5.6 billion of his target amount. The pair have signed up to the Giving Pledge though, and promised to give away 99% of their wealth over their lifetime. In 2020 the couple gave away $120 million, 50% of which went to their foundation, and the other half went to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation the pair advise.

Famous for co-founding Intel and authoring Moore's Law, 92-year-old Gordon Moore has given away a significant chunk of his fortune, which currently sits at $11.1 billion. Together with his wife Betty, Moore set up a science, healthcare, and conservation foundation, which the couple have given to generously over the years. In 2017, the pair were recognized as California’s most generous philanthropists.

Nicknamed the Queen of Mean, feared real estate and hotel tycoon Leona Helmsley was actually incredibly philanthropic if her last will and testament is anything to go by. The controversial businesswoman, who served jail time for tax evasion, bequeathed between $5 billion and $8 billion to charity after her death in 2007. She wanted the money to go towards dog welfare, and a whopping $12 million was left to the billionaire’s own canine Trouble, who died in 2011. A judge later reduced this to $2 million following a legal challenge by her family.

This week, writer MacKenzie Scott has announced a third round of major charitable donations, saying she has given away $2.7 billion to 286 organizations. In a blog post, Scott revealed that she wanted to help "high-impact organizations in categories and communities that have been historically underfunded and overlooked". Scott became one of the world's richest people following her divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2019, and has been a committed philanthropist ever since. She made her first round of donations in July 2020, giving $1.7 billion to 116 charities she described as "organizations and leaders driving change". This was followed by donations totaling $4.2 billion in the second half of the year. All of these have propelled her onto this list. Even after these donations, Scott is still worth $53 billion according to Forbes. But as she has signed the Giving Pledge, Scott is unlikely to hold onto these billions for long.

The 'James Bond of philanthropy', duty free shopping billionaire Chuck Feeney, who lives frugally and doesn't even own a home, has donated his entire $9 billion fortune to good causes, supporting everything from the Northern Ireland Peace Process to public health in Vietnam. Feeney had always wanted to give away his wealth during his lifetime and 2020 was the year that he finally achieved his aim.

Read Chuck Feeney's incredible life story here

While Chuck Feeney was compared to 007, Andrew Carnegie is considered the father of modern philanthropy. The Scottish-American industrialist died in 1919, but gave away 90% of his wealth during his lifetime. Carnegie donated $350 million to the likes of charities and universities, which in today’s money adds up to around $9 billion.

America's other great Gilded Age philanthropist, John D. Rockefeller donated around $540 million to a vast array of good causes before his death in 1937, which is approximately $9.7 billion when adjusted for inflation. Through the Rockefeller Foundation, the business magnate contributed to an array of causes covering education, religion and science, among others. His late grandson David Rockefeller had signed up to the Giving Pledge.

Billionaire aviator, movie producer and business tycoon Howard Hughes accidentally became one of America’s greatest philanthropists when he passed away in 1976. Having died without a will, it was uncertain as to where Hughes’ assets should go. As a result, the Howard Hughes Medical Centre was able to make a tidy $5.2 billion profit from the sale of Hughes Aircraft Company, the equivalent of $12.5 billion in today’s money, helping to fund the organization’s medical research.

After running the most expensive presidential nomination campaign of all time, it’s clear that Michael Bloomberg has cash to splash, and he’s looking to give away the majority of his $54.9 billion fortune to help good causes. The media mogul has already parted with $10 billion to fight the likes of climate change and gun violence, and in 2018 donated $1.8 billion to his alma mater Johns Hopkins University. In 2020 he carried on the trend, donating $1.6 billion to various causes.

Helen Walton, the wife of late Walmart founder Sam Walton, bequeathed a massive $16.4 billion to the family foundation following her death in 2007. The non-profit was founded in 1987 and in 2017 annual giving surpassed $500 million. The Walton Family Foundation is involved in three areas: education reform, environmental protection and revitalizing the northwest Arkansas region.

In 2017, Hungarian-American investor George Soros topped up his Open Society Foundations with a jaw-dropping $18 billion donation, while the billionaire donated another $585 million to charity in 2018. Soros’ foundation, which was set up in 1993, promotes democracy, tolerance and accountability throughout the world. The billionaire also donated $2.2 million to his home city of Budapest in Hungary and one-time coronavirus epicenter Milan to help both cities cope with the COVID-19 outbreak. His lifetime giving totals around $32.6 billion. 

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In 2018, Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates gave a total of $2.6 billion to good causes, which brought their lifetime giving to more than $50 billion. The bulk of the cash has gone to their eponymous foundation, which was created by the pair in 2000. The organization has given away hundreds of millions to help those in need, including $530 million to eradicating polio, and $400 million to treat and prevent HIV and malaria. The Microsoft founder and his wife have also stepped up during the coronavirus crisis, donating $150 million to tackle a pandemic that Gates is said to have actually predicted back in 2015. The couple recently announced they are divorcing, but their joint foundation will be maintained.

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Along with his good friend Bill Gates, investing guru Warren Buffett has driven 21st century mega-philanthropy. In addition to co-founding the Giving Pledge in 2010, the so-called Oracle of Omaha has donated around $55.9 billion to charity since 2000, and is planning to give away more than 99% of his wealth over the course of his lifetime. In June 2019, Buffett gave away his biggest annual donation yet, totaling $3.6 billion in Berkshire Hathaway stock. 

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