The 40 noteworthy givers include billionaires, celebrities and other generous folks
Each year since 2008, we’ve scoured the Asia-Pacific region for our list of top philanthropists. We look for men and women who made news with their altruism over the past year, and we also seek to spotlight people who have compiled a record of notable contributions over the years.
The members of this year’s honour roll pursued causes from launching a food bank in Singapore and training burn victims to be bakers in India to establishing a school for gifted children in Indonesia and training government officials in leadership and good governance in the Philippines. For the first time, philanthropists from Myanmar and Vietnam make the list.
The goal is to pick only true philanthropists—people who are giving their own money, not their company’s (unless they own most of the company), because we don’t consider donating shareholder funds as charity. And we also don’t list people who work in philanthropy solely as foundation heads, volunteers or fundraisers. We want to focus on the people supplying the financing and sketching the broad vision. If our effort in compiling this roster encourages more people to support worthy causes, then we’ll consider it a good deed.
(This story appears in the 04 August, 2017 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)