Hurun Research released the Hurun Global Chinese Big Philanthropy Report 2016 on the 13th of July 2016 in Beijing. The report is a benchmark ranking of individuals of Chinese origin who have donated CNY 500 million (equivalent to US$80m) or more during their lifetime.
51 Chinese made the list, led by Pony Ma of Tencent, Jack Ma, Li Ka-shing and Priscilla Chan of Facebook, who have all made donations running into billions of dollars. Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun Report Chairman and Chief Researcher, claims that these big philanthropists are changing the image of Chinese people globally.
Almost half of the philanthropists included in the list work in the field of real estate. When it comes to their places of origin, Guangdong leads the way with 16. Fujian follows with six. Hong Kong ranks third with five. Jiangsu and Taiwan have four each. Looking at headquarters, 25 of the philanthropists have their headquarters in Mainland China, while 14 have them in Hong Kong. The United States follows with five, and Taiwan with three. Macau, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia have one headquarter each. The average age of the donors is 66, one year older than last year.
In Mainland China 34% of the philanthropists made the donations through their own foundations, led by Jack Ma, Pony Ma, Cao Dewang, Niu Gensheng and Xu Lianjie. Education is the main cause for which the donations were made, followed by poverty alleviation projects in the philanthropists’ hometowns.
There are 630 billionaires of Chinese origin, making up 29% of the Hurun Global Rich List 2016, much more than the 20% share of the world population that China has. 470 are from Mainland China, 60 from Hong Kong, and 34 from Taiwan. Outside of Greater China, South East Asia leads the way alongside Singapore and Indonesia.
