The U.S. has a history of charity going back to the early settlements, which were constructed by volunteers. Today the tradition continues with these present-day philanthropists.

Warren Buffett & Bill Gates

Buffett, the current chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and a well-known investor, and Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, have contributed billions to a number of different charitable organizations. Buffett himself contributed $31 billion to The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation back in 2006. The Gates Foundation manages charity campaigns to end both malaria and river blindness.

Phil Knight

Since 2008, A co-founder of the Nike Corporation, Phil Knight, and his spouse Penny, have pledged or donated $725 million to the Portland, Oregon-based Oregon Health Sciences Center specifically for medical research.

Ronald Perelman

In 2008, investor, financier, and businessman, and financier Perelman contributed $70 million to charity.

Mark Zuckerberg

In 2015, co-founder of Facebook Zuckerberg and his pediatrician wife Priscilla Chan officially promised to contribute 99 percent of all their Facebook shares (then worth a total of $45 billion) to their then-new charity foundation known as the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative which centers on education and health.

Read more about the present-day philanthropists by Anthony Chanan Gordon at medium.com.