Real Life Heroes

Real life Heroes
America's 50 top givers in 2014 donated $9.8 billion to charity, up 27.5 percent from the top 50 gifts in 2013, according to a new report.

Bill Gates was the top giver last year, according to the Philanthropy 50, assembled by the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Gates and his wife, Melinda, made a gift of $1.5 billion in Microsoft stock to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
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Bill Gates, founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Ranking second was Ralph Wilson, late owner of the Buffalo Bills football team, who made a bequest of $1 billion to the Ralph C. Wilson Foundation in Detroit, which will aid charities in New York and Michigan.

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Ranking third was Ted Stanley, founder of collectible company MBI, with a gift of $652.4 million to the Broad Institute and other groups to fund mental-health research.

The report also showed a surge in giving by new tech titans. There were 12 tech donors on the list, twice the number in 2012 and more than the 11 donors from finance.

Among the top tech givers were Jan Koum, the WhatsApp founder who gave $556 million to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.Facebook billionaire Sean Parker gave $550 million to his own foundation and the Donor Advised Fund at Fidelity.

GoPro founder Nick Woodman and his wife, Jill, gave $500 million to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, while Google guys Sergey Brin and Larry Page gave $382.8 million and $177.3 million, respectively, to different foundations.

Here are the top 10 givers for 2014.

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Top 10 givers for 2014       Always Help helpless

Givers	Amount
Bill and Melinda Gates	$1.5 billion
Ralph C. Wilson Jr.	$1 billion
Ted Stanley	$652.4 million
Jan Koum	$556 million
Sean Parker	$550 million
Nicholas and Jill Woodman	$500 million
Michael Bloomberg	$462 million
Rachel Lambert (Bunny) Mellon	$411.3 million
Sergey Brin	$382.8 million
Paul Allen	$298 million