The world's top givers: Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Azim Premji, Mackenzie Scott and other billionaires who give their wealth away

SHARING IS CARING: They are some of the world’s richest. They give their money, time, reputation to charitable causes. In so doing, they make a major impact in the world or the communities they help. Here's the list of the world top givers over the years:

BILL GATES: $35.8 billion. Causes: Healthcare, extreme poverty, education, access to information technology. Gates, 65, founded Microsoft, the world’s largest software company. He chairs the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest private charitable foundation. Gates has an estimated net worth of $124 billion, as of 2021.

WARREN BUFFETT: $34 billion. Causes: Healthcare, education, AIDS-prevention, sanitation. The chair and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway has an estimated net worth of $80 billion as of October 2020. He one of the most successful business magnates, consistently ranking high on Forbes' list of billionaires.

GEORGE SOROS: $32 billion. Causes: Healthcare, anti-fascist publications, human rights, economic, legal, and social reform. Soros, 90, the Hungarian-born American billionaire investor. As of March 2021, he had a net worth of $8.6 billion, according to Forbes, having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society.

AZIM PREMJI: $21 billion. Causes: Education, healthcare. Premji is the founding chairman of Wipro Limited, India's fourth-largest outsourcer by market cap, and is informally known as the Czar of the Indian IT Industry.

LI KA-SHING: $10.7 billion. Causes: Education, healthcare. Sir Ka-shing Li, 93, is a Hong Kong business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. As of June 2019, Li is the 30th richest person in the world, with an estimated net wealth of $29.4 billion.

ANDREW CARNEGIE: $9.5 billion. Causes: Libraries, education, peace. The Scottish-American industrialist is a self-made steel tycoon and one of the wealthiest businessmen of the 19th century. He later dedicated his life to philanthropic endeavours.

CHARLES FRANCIS "CHUCK" FEENEY: $8 billion. Causes: Healthcare, youth, ageing, poverty, human rights. He made his fortune as co-founder of the Duty Free Shoppers Group. He has quietly donated more than $8 billion in the past 38 years, espousing the slogan “Giving While Living” through his Atlantic Philanthropies (AP) organisation, “to advance opportunity and promote equity and dignity.”

MACKENZIE SCOTT: $6 billion. Causes: Racial equality, LGBTQ+ equality, functional democracy, and climate change. Scott, ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has donated another $2.7 billion to a range of charities earlier this week, especially to those “that have been historically underfunded and overlooked”.

ALWALEED PHILANTHROPIES: $4 billion. Causes: poverty alleviation, women and youth empowerment, community development, education. The charity and philanthropic organisation was founded by Al-Waleed bin Talal. The foundation has established centres and programs at institutions of higher education around the world.

PHIL KNIGHT: $2 billion. Causes: Education, healthcare, intercollegiate athletics. The billionaire businessman is the co-founder and chairman emeritus of Nike, Inc., and was previously chairman and CEO of the company. As of July 23, 2020, Knight was ranked by Forbes as the 24th richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $50.7 billion.

JAMES E. STOWERS: $2 billion. Cause: Healthcare. Stowers founded the American Century Investments, one of the largest US investment firms. He died in 2014 at age 91.

HOWARD HUGHES: $1.56 billion. Cause: Healthcare. He had a net worth equal to $11 billion at the time of his death in 1976.