December 8, 2005 | Read Time: 1 minute
Gordon and Betty Moore have “achieved the unthinkable,” says BusinessWeek: They have supplanted Bill and Melinda Gates in the No. 1 position on the magazine’s annual ranking of the 50 most-generous Americans (November 28).
In its fourth special report on philanthropy, BusinessWeek estimates that Gordon Moore, a co-founder of Intel, and his wife, Betty, gave or pledged approximately $7-billion over the past five years, while the Gateses donated or pledged $5.5-billion during that time.
The magazine notes, however, that in the long run Bill and Melinda Gates trump the Moores and the rest of the field by a wide margin, with estimated lifetime contributions of approximately $28-billion.
The Moores’ philanthropy, which emphasizes support for environmental and scientific projects, is marked by a demand for measurable, tangible results that many of the other super-wealthy donors on the list also insist upon, says the magazine.
The special report also ranks the most-generous corporate donors of 2004, with Wal-Mart, which gave $188-million in cash, retaining its No. 1 position.
But when BusinessWeek calculated cash giving as a share of pretax corporate profits, only one of the 10 largest donors scored well: the Target Corporation, which gave $108-million in cash, equaling 3.6 percent of its pretax profits. Pharmaceutical companies donated the most products and services, with Pfizer topping that list.
The articles are available online at http://www.businessweek.com.
