In a year when charitable giving dropped among the nation's wealthiest people, Mayor Bloomberg handed out $254 million in donations—making him not only richest man in New York City but also the country's fourth biggest giver. According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Bloomberg—who is worth an estimated $17.5 billion—donated money to 1,358 different nonprofits and dedicated $125 million to help six charities devise a plan to help reduce traffic accidents in developing countries.
The Daily News notes that the Mayor plans to dedicate a vast portion of his personal fortune to philanthropy. As such, he has also donated more than $1.5 billion to his Bloomberg Family Foundation, which has purchased two Upper East Side buildings that the organization will use as headquarters when Bloomberg becomes a full-time philanthropist.
While the country's top 50 givers donated about $10 billion less in 2009 than they did in 2008, Bloomberg's charitable output increased by 8 percent. The only Americans who gave more money to charity than Bloomberg were Stanley F. and Fiona B. Druckenmiller ($705 million), the estate of fund manager John Templeton ($573 million), and Bill and Melinda Gates ($350 million). Donations weren't Bloomberg's only big expenditure in 2009—he also shelled out more than $100 million on his re-election campaign.
