Nigeria’s business mogul, Aliko Dangote has emerged as one of the global figures to feature in TIME Magazine100 Philanthropy list for 2025 following his exploits and investment in sectors that have benefited huge numbers of people and his immense philanthropic disposition around Africa and the world.
Aliko Dangote’s business philosophy is premised on ‘Giving back to Africa’ as the founder, president and CEO of the Dangote Group, has built a net worth of $23.9 billion through cement, agriculture, and oil refining operations in Nigeria. Through the Aliko Dangote Foundation, where he has funded with $1.25 billion in 2014, he has given back to the continent, which made his success possible by spending an average of $35 million a year on programs across Africa.
The critical sectors of health, education, economic empowerment, disaster relief, and food are the five main sectors that Dangote has invested in Nigeria that have brought succor to the Nigerian people.
The Dangote Foundation at the moment is embarking on a $100 million multi-year program to treat children with severe malnutrition. In 2025 it assured that Dangote like he did in 2024 initiative repeating will distribute more than one million bags of rice throughout Nigeria. Through his partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has helped in vaccine distribution that resulted in the World Health Organization announcing in 2015 that polio is no longer endemic in the country, Africa’s most populous.
Dangote has also made education his priority with the recent announcement of a $10 million donation to the Aliko Dangote University of Science and Technology in Nigeria’s Kano state. The foundation is also broadening local efforts this year, including providing vocational training and constructing school complexes throughout the country, in addition to annual fellowships offered through the World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders program.
Another prominent global figure, who made the list, is David Beckham, regarded as “champion of Change,” who still wants to do more in the service of humanity.
The former England captain and Manchester United midfield magician, known for his unique goal-scoring free-kicks, has remained committed to his longtime philanthropic work, particularly with UNICEF, where he is one of the organization’s longest-serving goodwill ambassadors.
To mark his 50th birthday, Beckham launched a fundraising appeal with UNICEF, a programme aimed at ensuring every child would have the chance to achieve their full potential. He has since gone on humanitarian trips to places like Sierra Leone, India, and Indonesia to shed light on challenges facing children and families in those countries.
In 2015, to mark his 10-year anniversary with UNICEF, Beckham launched his “7” fund—named for his number on his England and Manchester United jerseys—which has since raised more than $20 million. Among the beneficiaries have been 160,000 adolescents in Nepal who receive education and mental-health support, some 400,000 children in Djibouti who got the polio vaccine, and 40,000 boys and girls in El Salvador who take part in sports and recreational activity.
In the same order of massive philanthropy is business magnet, Michael Bloomberg, who is awash with the milk of human kindness, bringing the blessings of his immense wealth to the service of humanity.
From a fortune amassed by providing precise information to the financial services industry, he has so far donated more than $21 billion to causes ranging from climate to education to the arts.
Last year alone, Bloomberg gave $3.7 billion, making him 2024’s largest individual donor, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy (he was 2023’s biggest giver as well). Noteworthy grants included $1 billion to Bloomberg’s alma mater, Johns Hopkins University, to make medical school free for most students and increase financial aid for nursing and public-health students, plus $600 million to boost medical-school endowments at four historically Black colleges and universities.
Popular TV talk show host, Oprah Winfrey, is sure to feature in this list due her amazing contributions to global philanthropy. She has bagged many titles and the billionaire super star has given away more than $500 million with the kind of enthusiasm with which she gave out new cars on TV.
Her foundation’s focus has been on female education—seeing girls graduate from the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa, established in 2004, is “one of the greatest rewards in her life,” she has said.
She donated $20 million to fight food insecurity during the pandemic, contributed $24 million to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture as a founding (and its largest) donor, and gave tens of millions to aid recovery after devastating wildfires in Maui in 2023 and Los Angeles in January.
Others who made the list included Melinda French Gates, the iconic former wife of billionaire Bill Gates; billionaire investor Warren Buffett, CEO and chair of Berkshire Hathaway; Country music icon Dolly Parton and writer MacKenzie Scott among others.
