PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: philanthropy
prime minister of Cape Colony
Cecil Rhodes was a financier, statesman, and empire builder of British South Africa. He was prime minister of Cape Colony (1890–96) and organizer of the giant diamond-mining company De Beers Consolidated...
English writer and artist
John Ruskin was an English critic of art, architecture, and society who was a gifted painter, a distinctive prose stylist, and an important example of the Victorian Sage, or Prophet: a writer of polemical...
English artist
William Hogarth was the first great English-born artist to attract admiration abroad, best known for his moral and satirical engravings and paintings—e.g., A Rake’s Progress (eight scenes,1733). His attempts...
prime minister of Pakistan
Imran Khan is an antiestablishment politician in Pakistan who in 2022 became the first prime minister (2018–22) to be removed by a parliamentary vote. He rose to fame as a cricket player who led Pakistan’s...
American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actress
Dolly Parton was an American country music singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actress who pioneered the interface between country and pop music styles and became one of the most iconic entertainment figures...
American philanthropist and novelist
MacKenzie Scott is an American billionaire, philanthropist, and novelist. According to Forbes magazine, in March 2025 she had a net worth of $28.2 billion, making her the 68th richest person in the world...
Swedish chemist, engineer, and industrialist
Alfred Nobel was a Swedish chemist, engineer, and industrialist who invented dynamite and other more powerful explosives and who also founded the Nobel Prizes. Alfred Nobel was the fourth son of Immanuel...
American businessman
Robert F. Smith is one of the most successful investors in modern private equity and a defining figure in the software industry’s growth. The founder, chair, and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, he built...
English aristocrat and philanthropist
Clementine Churchill was an English aristocrat and philanthropist and the wife of famed English statesman Winston Churchill. Clementine Churchill was renowned for her support and advising of her husband...
American computer programmer and entrepreneur
Bill Gates (born October 28, 1955, Seattle, Washington) is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur who cofounded Microsoft Corporation, the world’s largest personal-computer software company....
Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-born American industrialist who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century. He was also one of the most important philanthropists...
American television personality, actress, and entrepreneur
Oprah Winfrey is an American television personality, actress, and entrepreneur whose syndicated daily talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, revolutionized the genre. That program—as well as her hugely popular...
Nigerian businessman
Aliko Dangote is a Nigerian businessman and philanthropist who is the founder and CEO of the Dangote Group conglomerate, which operates in Nigeria and several other African countries. Dangote, of the Hausa...
American industrialist
John D. Rockefeller was an American industrialist and philanthropist who founded the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business trust. He is the major...
American businesswoman and socialite
Marjorie Merriweather Post became one of the wealthiest women in the United States after inheriting her father’s company, Postum Cereal Co. Ltd., and transforming it into the General Foods Corporation....
American author, educator, and philanthropist
Chelsea Clinton is an American author, educator, and philanthropist who was perhaps best known as the only child of politicians Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States (1993–2001), and Hillary...
American businessman and philanthropist
Warren Buffett (born August 30, 1930, Omaha, Nebraska) is an American businessman and philanthropist, widely considered one of the most successful investors of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Known...
Russian entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and philanthropist
Yuri Milner is a Russian entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and philanthropist whose innovative investment techniques and prescient awareness of the commercial potential of the Internet revolutionized venture-capital...
American business executive and philanthropist
Tom Steyer is an American business executive and philanthropist who founded (1986) Farallon Capital Management and later became a noted environmental activist. In late 2025, he entered the race for governor...
Belgian-born British actress
Audrey Hepburn was a Belgian-born British actress known for her radiant beauty and style, her ability to project an air of sophistication tempered by a charming innocence, and her tireless efforts to aid...
American financier and philanthropist
Sanford I. Weill is an American financier and philanthropist whose company, Travelers Group, merged with Citicorp to form Citigroup in 1998—the largest merger in history at the time. Weill was born to...
American businesswoman and philanthropist
Madam C.J. Walker was an American businesswoman and philanthropist who was one of the first African American female millionaires in the United States. The first child in her family born after the Emancipation...
American businessman and philanthropist
Ross Perot was an American businessman and philanthropist who ran as an independent candidate for U.S. president in 1992 and 1996. He was the son of a cotton broker. Perot attended Texarkana Junior College...
Korean businessman
Kim Woo Choong was a Korean businessman and founder of the Daewoo Group. Kim’s actions leading up to Daewoo’s eventual bankruptcy led to his fleeing the country and to his eventual prosecution on fraud...
Indian industrialist
Jamsetji Tata was an Indian entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded the Tata Group, one of India’s largest conglomerates. His ambitious endeavors helped catapult India into the league of industrialized...
Russian entrepreneur and philanthropist
Savva Mamontov was a Russian railroad entrepreneur, philanthropist, and founder and creative director of the Moscow Private Opera. Mamontov is best known for supporting a revival of traditional Russian...
American philanthropist
John du Pont was an American philanthropist who supported amateur freestyle wrestling. On January 26, 1996, he shot and killed freestyle wrestler Dave Schultz, an Olympic gold medalist who lived and trained...
American philanthropist and political activist
Betsy DeVos is an American philanthropist and Republican political activist who served as the secretary of the U.S. Department of Education (2017–21) in the administration of Pres. Donald Trump. Her father,...
British philanthropist and entrepreneur
Sir Sigmund Sternberg was a Hungarian-born British philanthropist and entrepreneur who was known for his efforts to foster connectedness between various religious faiths. He was the founder and president...
American investor
Raj Rajaratnam is an American investor who was convicted in 2011 of securities fraud and conspiracy in one of the largest prosecutions of insider trading (trading on information not available to the public)...
Chilean television personality
Don Francisco is a Chilean television personality who hosted the popular variety show Sábado Gigante (“Giant Saturday”), one of the longest-running programs in television history. Kreutzberger was born...
American designer
Louis Comfort Tiffany was an American painter, craftsman, philanthropist, decorator, and designer, internationally recognized as one of the greatest forces of the Art Nouveau style, who made significant...
American industrialist and philanthropist [1794–1877]
Cornelius Vanderbilt was an American shipping and railroad magnate who acquired a personal fortune of more than $100 million. The son of an impoverished farmer and boatman, Vanderbilt quit school at age...
Haitian rapper, producer, and philanthropist
Wyclef Jean is a Haitian rapper, producer, and philanthropist whose dynamic, politically inflected rhymes and keen ear for hooks established him as a significant force in popular music. Born in a suburb...
American entrepreneur
Reed Hastings is an American entrepreneur who was cofounder (1997) of Netflix, a media-streaming and video-rental company. He served as its CEO (1998–2020) and co-CEO (2020–23) before becoming executive...
British physician
John Caius was a prominent humanist and physician whose classic account of the English sweating sickness is considered one of the earliest histories of an epidemic. Caius attended Gonville Hall (now Gonville...
American financier and politician
Andrew Mellon was an American financier, philanthropist, and secretary of the treasury (1921–32) who reformed the tax structure of the U.S. government in the 1920s. His benefactions made possible the building...
American philanthropist
Paul Mellon was an American philanthropist who was heir to an enormous fortune amassed by his father, financier and industrialist Andrew W. Mellon, but chose not to centre his career in the business world....
American sportsman and businessman
John Hay Whitney was an American multimillionaire and sportsman who had a multifaceted career as a publisher, financier, philanthropist, and horse breeder. Whitney was born into a prominent family; his...
American Red Cross leader
Mabel Thorp Boardman was an American Red Cross leader who reestablished the organization’s funding base and greatly extended its other resources and services. Boardman was from a well-to-do family and...
American industrialist
Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. was an American corporate executive and philanthropist who headed General Motors (GM) as president and chairman for more than a quarter of a century. The son of a coffee and tea importer,...
Sudanese-British entrepreneur
Mo Ibrahim is a Sudanese-born British entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded one of the largest mobile phone companies operating in Africa and who created the multimillion-dollar Ibrahim Prize for...
American publisher and philanthropist
Ellen Browning Scripps was an English-born American journalist, publisher, and philanthropist whose personal fortune, accrued from investments in her family’s newspaper enterprises, allowed her to make...
American dog breeder and trainer
Dorothy Leib Harrison Wood Eustis was an American philanthropist and dog breeder whose work with German shepherds led her to establish and endow The Seeing Eye, Inc., and other groups for the training...
French educator
St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle ; canonized 1900; feast day April 7) was a French educator and the founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools (also called the de La Salle Brothers...
American reformer
Mary Morton Kimball Kehew was an American reformer who worked to improve the living and working conditions of mid-19th-century workingwomen in Boston, especially through labour union participation. In...
American businessman and philanthropist
Albert Lasker was an American advertising executive and philanthropist who is credited with being the founder of modern advertising because he insisted that advertising copy actively sell rather than simply...
Australian-born American banker
James Wolfensohn was an Australian-born American banker who served as president of the World Bank (1995–2005), where he tried to shift the institution’s focus toward humanitarian efforts. Wolfensohn served...
queen of Jordan
Queen Noor is an American-born architect who was the consort (1978–99) of King Hussein of Jordan. (Read Queen Noor’s Britannica essay on land mines.) Born into a prominent Arab American family, Halaby...
American philanthropist and writer
Brooke Russell Astor was an American socialite, philanthropist, and writer, who employed her position, wealth, and energies in the interest of cultural enrichment and the poor. The daughter of a U.S. Marine...
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