The World's Biggest Givers

Luisa Kroll has spent over a decade tracking the billions that people have given away for philanthropic causes. Our dream is that one day a BDPA entrepreneur will be on the list ... and she will be famous for giving millions to the BDPA Education and Technology Foundation (BETF).

But, I digress...

Kroll recently identified the 19 people who have already donated at least $1 billion each to charities or foundations. That is five more than she found two years ago. More than two-thirds of these philanthropists (13 to be exact) are from the U.S. and all but one is a self-made entrepreneur.

Bill Gates

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is the most generous person on the planet in dollar terms, having gifted $28 billion to his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has become the preeminent philanthropic institution in the world. He has given away more than three times as much as his good friend Warren Buffett, who moves up two spots to number two, ahead of George Soros ($8 billion) and Intel co-founder Gordon Moore ($6.8 billion).

Click here to read bios of the World’s Biggest Givers

Take a moment to read the full Forbes article written by Luisa Kroll.

Give By The Click

By Betsy Brill

In an age of packed schedules and dwindling funds, we may not feel we have the time or money to devote to charitable giving. Fortunately for the thousands of nonprofit organizations struggling to provide critical services to our communities in this challenging economy a new wave of young and innovative social entrepreneurs has created inventive Web applications to accomplish the seemingly impossible: to spur charitable giving during a recession and to allow us to give without even opening our wallets.

These Web applications are experiments in social enterprise -- turning profits while creating forums for social change. Unlike the much-publicized charitable giving applications created by Facebook (Causes) and Twitter (TwitCause), these enterprises allow us to give while saving time -- and even money--as we multi-task our way through our daily lives. They also have the potential to supply a sustainable and reliable funding source -- however nominal -- for nonprofits for which every penny truly counts.

Read the rest of the Forbes article.