Tata Group’s Jamsetji Tata tops world’s top philanthropist in 100 years, Azim Premji ranks 12 in top 50

Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, founder of the Tata Group has occupied the numero uno position in the EdelGive Hurun Philanthropists of the Century, leaving behind stalwarts like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. The report states that Tata Group’s total donations peg around $102.4 billion and that has been in sectors like education and healthcare. 

“The total philanthropic value of Tata is made up of 66% of Tata Sons,” EdelGive Hurun said in a media statement. “He set up the JN Tata Endowment in 1892 for higher education, which was the beginning of Tata Trusts.”

The Tata Group is the only Indian company that has reached the top 10 positions. Besides that, the other Indian that made it to the list is the founder-chairman of Wipro Ltd, Azim Premji. He was ranked 12 with donations worth $22 billion.

Bill Gates & Melinda French Gates, Henry Wellcome, Howard Hughes and Warren Buffett are among the top 5.

These rankings were done on the basis of Total Philanthropic Value which is calculated as the value of the assets adjusted for inflation, together with the sum of gifts or distributions to date. The required data was extracted from sources available in public and sometimes shared directly by the foundations. 

The list also featured 39 individuals from the US, five from the UK, three from China and one each from Portugal and Switzerland. These individuals’ donations amounted to $832 billion, of which $503 billion are in foundations today and $329 billion have been disbursed in the last century.

“It is surprising that Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have not made the cut in this list. The stories of the world’s biggest philanthropists of the last century tells the story of modern philanthropy. The legacies of the world’s earliest billionaires such as Carnegie and Rockefeller, through to the Bill Gates and Warren Buffett’s of today, show how wealth created has been redistributed,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of Hurun Report.

Other foundations also made huge donations to fight the unprecedented health and economic crisis due to COVID-19.