Having served as mayor of New York City for an impressive three terms, Bloomberg launched a campaign for the US presidency in 2019 and spent close to $1 billion (£748m) of his own money in his bid to become the Democratic party nominee. He stepped down from the race in March 2020.

Via his eponymous organisation Bloomberg Philanthropies, March 2020 saw Bloomberg commit $40 million (£29.3m) to help "prevent and slow [the pandemic's] spread around the world, particularly in Africa." However, some have criticised the size of this donation when compared to the amount of cash he pumped into his self-funded political campaign. Forbes states that Bloomberg has donated around $5 billion (£3.7bn) to a number of causes over the years, including gun control and climate change.

Perhaps in response to the critics, in the past two years Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Greenwood Initiative has given $250 million (£211.5m) towards tackling medical debt among Black Americans, along with another $100 million (£84.6m) split between four historically Black medical schools to provide debt relief to students. Another $150 million (£127m) went to Johns Hopkins University for additional slots for students of colour to study a range of PhDs.

The super-rich donating a fortune to fight the world's problems