Philanthropist

A philanthropist is any person that tries to do good deeds to help other people, however, the label is typically applied to those who give substantial amounts of money to certain causes (often foundations, museums, or specific activist groups). The label is far from uncontroversial, as philanthropists are often accused of funding the wrong causes (e.g. funding art instead of fighting world hunger) or doing it for the wrong reasons (e.g. to avoid taxes or out of personal interest).

Some notable philanthropists:

• Paul Allen
• Walter Annenberg
• Thomas John Barnardo
• Samuel Augustus Barnett
• Andrew Carnegie
• Arthur Coles
• Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury
• Bill Cosby
• Anthony J. Drexel[?]
• Henry Duncan[?]
• Benjamin Franklin
• Elizabeth Fry
• John 'Mad Jack' Fuller
• Bill Gates
• Calouste Gulbenkian
• Sir Paul Getty
• Edward Harkness
• Johns Hopkins
• J. C. Jacobsen
• Alfred Lee Loomis
• John D. Macarthur[?]
• Sir Robert Mayer
• Robert Raikes
• William Marsh Rice
• John D. Rockefeller
• Joseph Rowntree[?]
• Sir Run Run Shaw
• Ted Turner
• Cornelius Vanderbilt
• William Wilberforce

See also philanthropy.