22 successful women-led companies that prove there's much more to business than profits

Tory Burch

Cofounder and CEO, Tory Burch

Even those who don’t know Tory Burch by name will surely recognize her logo-embossed flats, a now ubiquitous staple among fashion-minded women. The designer started her eponymous “affordable luxury” brand in 2004 out of her kitchen with borrowed money and built it from the ground up, expanding the business into a $3 billion company with more than 160 stores across the world. A legal battle with her ex-husband ended with him selling the majority of his 28.3% stake in the company in 2013, turning Burch into a self-made billionaire.

Though best known for her iconic shoes, Burch’s brand includes handbags, clothing, and jewelry. And she continues to expand: Last year, she partnered with FitBit to create a line of branded wearables and launched activewear collection Tory Sport.

Burch doesn’t stop with her own success. She hopes to empower other women to achieve their goals, establishing the Tory Burch Foundation in 2009 as a way to support fellow women entrepreneurs by providing resources that help women raise capital, find mentors, and receive advice from experts. In 2015, Burch also launched a fellowship program where 10 entrepreneurs win a $10,000 grant for business education, attend a three-day workshop at Tory Burch headquarters, and participate in a year-long fellowship program that provides business support and guidance. One fellow also receives a $100,000 grant investment for her business.

Ellen DeGeneres

Producer, "The Ellen DeGeneres Show"; Founder, Ellen Digital Network

Most famously known as the host and producer of her eponymous, Emmy-award-winning talk show, Ellen DeGeneres is one of today’s most visible entertainment personalities. She’s also perhaps one of the savviest businesspeople in Hollywood.

In May, the comedian launched Ellen Digital Network, an original programming and user-generated-content platform that will unify her wildly popular entertainment, lifestyle, and social media brands. Already, “The Ellen Show” rakes in more than 600 million average monthly video views across all social media platforms.

DeGeneres’ current digital assets include viral video website Ellentube; No. 1 party game app “Heads Up!”; Ellentube original reality-TV competition “tWitch & Allison's Dance Challenge”; and interactive “Ellen Show” segment “Epic or Fail.” Under the new digital network, she'll introduce an animated show produced with Warner Bros. and an exclusive content project with social media superstar Tyler Oakley, among other projects.

Through a steady stream of fresh, energetic, and positive content, DeGeneres — who has more than 60 million followers on Twitter — has crafted a growing brand that’s only elevated by her creed: Be kind to one another. The apparel designer, interior decorator, and New York Times best-selling author also uses her platform to help steer national conversation on topics like gay rights and to give generously to her talk show guests and to charities.

Sheryl Sandberg

COO, Facebook

Eight years ago, Sheryl Sandberg joined Facebook to become the rising social network’s chief operating officer and one of its most valuable leaders. Her job at Facebook is critical: to monetize the company while keeping its more than one billion users happy. Sandberg and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg have worked in tandem to lead the company to nearly $3.7 billion in annual profit and a market value of nearly $350 billion as of June 2016. It’s also renowned as one of the best places to work in America.

But Sandberg’s remarkable leadership extends beyond the walls of Facebook.

For her prominent role as one of Silicon Valley’s most powerful women — she was previously Google’s vice president of global online sales — the Harvard graduate has become a voice for women in the workplace. Her 2010 TED Talk and her 2013 national bestseller, “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead,” inspired a global movement that persists today, namely through Sandberg’s LeanIn.org. The nonprofit’s flagship initiative is setting up Lean In Circles — small community groups that empower women to act on their ambition. The organization also partners with influential companies to create public awareness campaigns that educate the masses about gender equality.

As a member of The Giving Pledge — which she signed in 2014 with her husband, tech executive Dave Goldberg, who unexpectedly died a year later — Sandberg plans to give away a majority of her nearly $2 billion fortune to philanthropy. In November, she transferred $31 million in Facebook shares to The Sheryl Sandberg Philanthropy Fund to donate to various charities.

Sara Blakely

Founder and owner, Spanx

In 2012, Sara Blakely became the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire at the time, thanks to her invention — Spanx, the revolutionary body-shaping undergarments. The idea grew out of Blakely’s own needs. One day, she cut up her pantyhose to create the slimming effect she wanted under a pair of pants.

Keeping her day job in sales, Blakely went to work developing her idea, despite having next to no knowledge about fashion design, retail, or business. She spent two years — and $5,000 of her own money — diligently patenting the idea, finding a hosiery manufacturer, prototyping the product, and successfully pitching it to Neiman Marcus. Blakely, then still in her 20s, launched Spanx out of her Atlanta, Georgia, apartment in 2000. Her big break came shortly thereafter, when Oprah chose Spanx as one of her favorite products.

Spanx is wholly owned by Blakely. The company does not release its financials, but recent reports estimate annual sales of around $400 million. In its 16-year history, the company’s inventory has moved beyond hosiery to include bras, bodysuits, leggings, activewear, and even a line for men.

Blakely has signed The Giving Pledge, promising to donate half her wealth to philanthropic causes. She created the Sara Blakely Foundation in 2006 to “help women globally and locally through education and entrepreneurship.” And in 2010, she established the Leg Up program to give women entrepreneurs one-on-one mentoring and provide their businesses a platform to scale.

Debbie Sterling

Founder and CEO, GoldieBlox

While Debbie Sterling was a mechanical engineering student at Stanford, she was increasingly bothered by the lack of women in her program. After graduating in 2005, Sterling spent a few years in marketing, but she was nagged by the lack of female engineers. So she quit her day job and spent a year studying the gender gap in STEM-related fields, researching the female brain, and meeting with neuroscientists.

In 2012, Sterling turned her research into action and founded GoldieBlox, a company intent on “disrupting the pink aisle.” Sterling’s research told her that young girls have naturally inherent verbal skills and are receptive to good storytelling. So with GoldieBlox, she created a line of construction toys and accompanying books that appealed to girls’ strengths while also exercising their spatial skills, a necessary skill for engineers.

Sterling turned to Kickstarter, where she raised nearly $1 million in preorders in three months, and began making short videos on YouTube that went viral. Six months later, GoldieBlox turned heads during a 30-second Super Bowl spot it won in a contest, earning praise for its empowering message.

To date, GoldieBlox has sold more than 1 million narrative-driven construction toys in 6,000 retailers worldwide and produced over 100 web videos. In 2016, the company is continuing its feminist crusade with the launch of its second app, which will debut this summer and teach coding principles to girls through GoldieBlox narratives.

Mosunmola "Mo" Abudu

Founder, chairman and CEO, EbonyLife TV

Mosunmola “Mo” Abudu is chairman and CEO of one of Africa’s most successful new media ventures — the Nigeria-based television network EbonyLife TV, which endeavors to tell real African stories and change the conversation around the continent.

Growing up in the UK raised by Nigerian parents, Abudu was subjected to slews of ignorant, “mind-boggling” comments and questions about African life and culture (“Do you guys live in trees?”), which triggered a desire to dispel the world’s inaccurate perceptions.

“Somewhere deeply buried in my subconscious was a need to tell Africa's story. My burning desire is just to tell everybody: Listen, we're not a bunch of savages. We really are gifted," she told the Independent.

Abudu took an unorthodox route to entertainment. She returned to Nigeria in the early 1990s, working as the head of HR for ExxonMobil until 2000, when she left to launch her own HR consulting firm and, several years later, a hotel in Lagos as well. In 2006, she decided to ditch the corporate world and break into TV. She started “Moments with Mo,” which became the first daily talk show syndicated across the continent, landing high-profile guests like Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, and Hillary Clinton, then the US Secretary of State.

In 2013, Abudu launched EbonyLife, where she produces a wide array of TV shows, from her own talk show to an African version of “Desperate Housewives,” which she landed in a deal with Disney. She has also inked content distribution deals with CBS and Netflix. The network now provides premium content to to 49 countries across Africa, as well as the UK and the Caribbean.

Emily Woods

Cofounder and CTO, Sanivation

Sanitation issues in rural African communities cause a host of diseases. But simply providing residents with toilets without the promise of maintenance can cause more problems than it solves. So Andrew Foote and Emily Woods decided to tackle the entire system from the ground up.

Through Sanivation, Foote and Woods install private, container-based toilets into homes in East Africa, which are maintained for a $7 monthly fee. The low-cost toilets not only give residents privacy and improve hygiene, but also cut down on the health hazards that come from improper waste disposal.

The maintenance fee covers the cost of taking the waste to a processing plant, where it’s then turned into bricks of fuel that work as an alternative to charcoal. The company sells the bricks — each of which saves about 88 trees — back to the community. Instead of the inadequate approach of handing out free toilets, Sanivation’s model takes a necessary system and elevates it into something sustainable and useful. Sanivation also licenses its model to refugee camps, helping train local staff on how to improve sanitation services.

The team’s still small — it employs around 30 people currently — but the business is growing. Sanivation has installed around 100 toilets so far and plans to be in 500 homes by the end of the year. On the other side of the business, the the company is striving to keep up with the surging demand for its bricks.

Mary Barra

CEO, General Motors

Mary Barra is the first woman to ascend to CEO at a major global automaker. The job caps a career spent at General Motors — a career that has seen the largest car company in the US endure a government bailout and subsequent bankruptcy, a return to its market-leading position, and a costly recall scandal that hit as soon as Barra became chief executive.

Barra's highest priority as GM CEO has been to keep the 100-plus-year-old industrial giant from being blindsided by the technological disruption currently sweeping through the industry. To that end, she has presided of a substantial investment in ride-sharing service Lyft; the acquisition of Cruise Automotive, a self-driving car startup; and the creation of Maven, a separate division at GM exclusively focused on the mobility solutions of the future. According to Barra, GM under her leadership is seeking to disrupt itself.

Barra is also revamping GM's infamously hidebound corporate culture, bringing levels of accountability to the automaker, pushing for steady profitability and growth over the chase for market share, and refusing to accept excuses for the failure to innovate. Working for her is a daily challenge, but if you talk to her executives, they'll tell you that her energy and vision are highly motivating, and that she's preparing GM to not just compete, but win for another century. That’s good news for American consumers, as well as the more than 215,000 GM employees.

Sarah Kauss

Founder and CEO, S'well

Until Sarah Kauss learned about the world’s clean-water crisis while attending her five-year Harvard Business School reunion in 2009, she’d been satisfied working in consulting and real estate. As she was told of the 200 billion plastic bottles dumped in landfills each year, her entrepreneurial spirit kicked in.

In 2010, Kauss launched S’well from her New York apartment to create a line of reusable water bottles that are both environmentally and fashionably sound. The result is a beautifully designed, chemical-free, stainless-steel water bottle — which costs up to $45 and now comes in dozens of designs and colors — that keeps drinks cold for 24 hours or hot for 12 hours.

Kauss bootstrapped the company with $30,000 of her own money, and despite being S’Well’s only employee for the first year and a half, she’s had no trouble scaling the enterprise. After early bulk orders from Harvard and Facebook, Oprah featured the bottles in her annual list of recommended products, which prompted the “Oprah effect.” Soon, orders were picked up by Starbucks, Crate & Barrel, and J.Crew, and unilaterally promoted by celebrities on Instagram and movie sets.

In 2014, S’well hit a huge milestone when it sold $10 million worth of bottles. One year later, the company surged to $50 million in annual sales. Profits from each bottle sold — $200,000 since 2015 — go to charity partners UNICEF, American Forests, and Drink Up to plant trees and improve access to safe water.

Laura Dangermond

Cofounder, ESRI

Google Maps may get all the love as the de facto map for average people, but the true pioneers of digital maps are Jack and Laura Dangermond, and they’ve been doing it for nearly 50 years.

The married pair started their mapping software company, Esri, in 1969, enjoying consistent success despite enormous shifts in technology and competition from Silicon Valley’s giants in the years since. The company generates more than $1 billion in annual revenue — 25% of which it reinvests in R&D — selling its powerful ArcGIS software to national governments, municipalities, and companies, including 75% of those on the Fortune 500. Starbucks uses it to sustainably open new stores, while cities like Charlotte, North Carolina, rely on it for everything from crime analysis to planning recycling pickup routes.

Esri’s purpose is greater than making money, though. The Dangermonds know their product can help in solving an array of global problems, so they give it away for free to thousands of nongovernmental organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which uses it to fight the spread of disease in Africa. Many others employ it for wildlife and nature conservation — one of the Dangermonds’ passions. Last year, the National Audubon Society awarded the couple the Audubon Medal, one of the highest honors in conservation. Additionally, Esri has given $1 billion worth of STEM software to over 100,000 K-12 schools in the the US.

The Dangermonds joined The Giving Pledge in June, committing to give away the majority of their more than $3 billion fortune to philanthropy.

Anne Wojcicki

Founder and CEO, 23andMe

Silicon Valley native Anne Wojcicki is helping people take control of their health through her genetic testing company 23andMe, which she founded more than a decade ago when the human genome was simply a new frontier.

After six years of developing and distributing more than 240 varieties of direct-to-consumer genetics tests, the company hit a “big speed bump” and was ordered by the FDA to halt operations for misrepresenting its testing reports — which mainly identified the presence of conditions like BRCA, a breast cancer gene, and Alzheimer's — as medical advice.

For two years, Wojcicki — whose sister Susan is the CEO of YouTube and ex-husband is Google cofounder Sergey Brin — worked diligently to overhaul the product to comply with regulations. Last fall, 23andMe relaunched with a new $199 spit-and-submit test, providing users with 60-plus FDA-approved reports in four defined categories: ancestry, wellness, traits, and carrier status for inherited conditions (where the bulk of the new tests are concentrated).

The company’s mission is still the same, though: to guide people through the massive wealth of knowledge in the human genome. The more people know about their genetics, Wojcicki believes, the more informed their health and wellness decisions will be. And 80% of the company’s 1 million genotyped customers have agreed to share their data with 23andMe for potentially groundbreaking scientific and medical research. With its regulatory troubles behind it, the company is once again thriving, earning a $1.1 billion valuation after raising $115 million in October.

Sue McCloskey

Cofounder, Fair Oaks Farms

Mike and Sue McCloskey run the mega-dairy operation Fair Oaks Farms, which also doubles as an adventure theme park that attracts a half-million people annually. It may seem like an odd synergy — others in their industry thought so — but the couple believed that in addition to generating profits, the transparency from opening up their farm to outsiders would highlight their progressive, wholesome values, rather than feeding into animal-rights activists’ narratives about industrial farming operations.

The company, a network of 11 farms that has more than 36,000 cows on 35,000 acres in Indiana between Chicago and Indianapolis, has plenty to crow about from a values perspective. For instance, the McCloskeys ardently believe profits don’t necessarily have to come at the expense of the environment. Their entire operation runs on animal manure — Fair Oaks produces 430,000 gallons each day — that is recycled into electricity as well as a natural-gas byproduct that’s used to fuel their fleet of trucks. And when a Humane Society rep visited the operation a few years back, he was surprised to find animals well taken care of and the practice of cutting cows’ tails banned.  

The McCloskeys, whose Fair Oaks operation is part of a 92-farm dairy cooperative they helped found, called Select Milk Producers, also had the idea to filter milk, separating its composite parts and then refashioning it into a healthier beverage with more protein and calcium and less sugar. Select Milk partnered with Coca-Cola in 2012 to distribute the beverage, branded as Fairlife, which launched in 2014 and brought in $90 million during its first year.

Jennifer Foyle

Global Brand President, Aerie

An offshoot of the teen retailer American Eagle, Aerie focuses on intimates and swimwear for teens and young women. But Aerie has one big difference that makes it stand out from competitors: It was the first major brand to ban Photoshop in ad campaigns and deviate from the prototypical model in favor of average women proudly displaying their curves and flaws. Though it launched in 2014, the #AerieReal campaign surged last year, boosting sales 21%.

Aerie’s president, Jennifer Foyle, attributes the 10-year-old brand’s success to its commitment to body positivity — and the results speak for themselves. Despite going against the norm of the fashion industry, especially within the lingerie niche, Aerie saw sales jump while other industry stalwarts suffered, and executives expect the growth to continue, potentially doubling the company’s size.

Aerie also took its dedication to body positivity a step further through a partnership with the National Eating Disorder Association, an organization Aerie model Iskra Lawrence is an ambassador for, earlier this year. Throughout NEDA’s National Eating Disorders Week, Aerie donated 100% of sales from a specific shirt to the organization.

Judy Faulkner

Founder and CEO, Epic Systems

She's not a household name á la Mark Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos, but Judy Faulkner, the founder and CEO of Epic Systems, has earned her place as a disruptive tech billionaire just the same. The press-shy software programmer built Epic — a private healthcare company that sells medical-records software — from the ground up, launching in 1979 with about $75,000 in capital.

The company is now in a league of its own, with $2 billion in annual sales. Epic's databases contain medical information for nearly half of the US, and its client list reads like a who’s who in healthcare, including Kaiser Permanente, CVS Health, and Johns Hopkins. The software allows doctors to pull up a patient’s full medical history on the spot, streamlining the care process as patients switch doctors and see specialists.

Growing quickly, Epic added nearly 3,000 jobs in the past two years. But despite its size, Faulkner keeps the company culture personal. There are no budgets, few formal titles, and conferences feel like festivals, with themes such as “Harry Potter” and “I Love Lucy.” She prioritizes employee satisfaction, and after three years all employees earn stock options.

In 2015, Faulkner joined Bill and Melinda Gates’ and Warren Buffett's The Giving Pledge, promising to donate 99% of her $2.5 billion fortune to philanthropy.

Diane Hoskins

Co-CEO, Gensler

Global design and architecture firm Gensler is serious about workplace innovation. So much so that the firm’s co-CEOs, Andy Cohen and Diane Hoskins, have implemented a “constellation of stars” model within the company, meaning Gensler’s more than 5,000 employees operate collaboratively rather than under a top-down leadership approach. The model allows for more creativity and ease in circulation of ideas.

As a firm whose projects are as diverse as corporate campuses like Airbnb and Facebook, skyscrapers like Shanghai Tower, and entire city master plans, it’s imperative that opinions are shared freely between design groups.

Gensler completes about 3,000 projects every year among its 46 offices spread throughout North and South America, Asia, Europe, and Australia. The 50-year-old firm — which last year became the first architecture and design firm to reach $1 billion in annual revenue — also promotes company growth through more than 3,500 internal learning programs that range from cross-cultural learning exchanges to job shadowing programs. Despite its size and success, the company openly guards against the practice of growth for growth’s sake.

For clients, the firm completes a “pre- and post-occupancy” survey to inform design and measure productivity. In many cases, sustainability also plays a principal role in Gensler design. In 2015, the firm completed The Tower at PNC Plaza, a 33-story, LEED-Platinum certified, 800,000-square-foot tower in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that’s now regarded as one of the “greenest skyscrapers in the world.”

Kit Crawford

Cofounder, Clif Bar

Husband and wife team Gary Erickson and Kit Crawford launched Clif Bar in 1992 after Erickson, during a 175-mile bike ride, found the only prominent energy bar on the market was practically inedible. He wanted to create a bar that the fitness industry was desperately lacking — one that was wholesome and nutritious but also tasted good.

Immediately a hit with cyclists and hikers, Clif Bar and its wheelhouse of appealing energy bars in flavors like crunchy peanut butter and chocolate chip saw rapid growth throughout the 1990s. The company has since ballooned into a global brand that brings in an estimated $500 million in revenue annually.

But it still remains true to its roots. Above all, Clif Bar strives to place an emphasis on organic ingredients, sustainable farming practices, and healthy living. More recently, those strides have included earning LEED Platinum certification, the highest standard available, in 2012 for the company’s headquarters, which are outfitted with solar panels that generate a majority of its electricity. The company also has a “reduction, recycling, and composting” initiative that has trimmed their local landfill impact by 85%.

Erickson and Crawford encourage employees to live by these tenets of wellness and sustainability as well. Clif Bar will reimburse employees up to $6,500 for purchasing an eco-friendly vehicle and offers similar rewards for biking, walking, or using public transportation to get to work. The company also offers subsidized meals, an on-site gym, free fitness classes, and paid six-week sabbaticals every seven years.  

Rose Marcario

CEO, Patagonia

Rose Marcario became CEO of Patagonia in 2014, making her the first female to take the position in 20 years. She was previously the company's CFO, joining after 15 years in finance.

Marcario's first priority as CEO was figuring out how to save on production costs and cut back on waste. She swapped shipping boxes for recyclable bags and downsized its leisurewear sector to focus on the company's core product: outerwear.

Patagonia values its employees' well-being. A typical staff meeting might include surfing. Employees can go on a 30-mile bike ride during lunch, thanks to the company’s flex-time policy, which allows them to come and go as they please as long as they meet deadlines. It's regularly ranked as one of the best places to work.

“If you're making decisions based on meeting your earnings-per-share number and not about the long-term health of your company, its employees, the environment, and the community you're operating in, then you're probably making a decision that isn't good for the long term," Marcario told Business Insider.

Her business decisions have paid off. Since the beginning of her tenure as CEO, the family-owned company’s profits have tripled. Despite the fact that the company, a certified B Corporation, urges people to only buy what they need, it raked in $750 million in sales last year, making 2015 the company’s most profitable year to date.

Kristin Richmond and Kirsten Tobey

Cofounders; CEO (Richmond) and Chief Impact Officer (Tobey), Revolution Foods

For Kristin Groos Richmond and Kirsten Saenz Tobey, cofounders of Revolution Foods, it all comes down to a simple belief: Better education starts with better nutrition. The pair yearns to transform the American food system, starting in schools, where students are often served meals that are reheated, void of nutrition, and borderline inedible.

In contrast, Revolution makes healthy, fresh food both available to students and affordable for schools to cater. The company’s prepackaged meals contain no artificial colors, flavors, preservatives, or high-fructose corn syrup and are largely prepared from locally grown ingredients. They’re appetizing too; Richmond and Tobey taste-tested the products with real kids to ensure they created dishes that are at once appealing and nutritious.

The affordability is a game-changer as well. It allows schools to choose healthy options like Revolution Foods instead of settling for budget-friendly alternatives that barely meet FDA standards.

The company now provides more than 1.5 million meals a week across public and charter schools in 15 states, providing food to more than 200,000 kids per day, 80% of whom qualify for free or reduced lunch. Revolution Foods, now generating more than $100 million in annual sales, has also expanded into retail, selling prepackaged meal options akin to Lunchables that make it possible for families to eat healthy outside of school, too.

Kim Jordan

Cofounder and executive chair, New Belgium Brewing Company

New Belgium Brewing Company Cofounder and Executive Chair Kim Jordan has managed to create a beloved craft-beer brand while becoming one of America’s largest, most sustainable breweries and sharing the success with employees.  

Since she founded the company 25 years ago with her husband, Jordan has always sought to take care of New Belgium’s employees, operating a stock-ownership program that workers enter upon their one-year anniversary at the company. And while other iconic craft breweries like Dogfish Head and Lagunitas have sold stakes to outside investors, Jordan sold her remaining 59% stake in the company to employees in 2012 — a conscious effort to fight the wealth gap and to avoid cuts and layoffs a buyer might have demanded.

Apart from owning 100% of the company, workers also enjoy a bevy of benefits, including anniversary gifts like a Fat Tire cruiser bike at year one, a one-week trip to Belgium with coworkers at year five, and a four-week paid sabbatical at years 10, 20, and 30.

As a certified B corporation, the brewery, based in Fort Collins, Colorado, prioritizes socially and environmentally conscious practices like waste diversion — 99.8% of New Belgium’s waste is deposited outside of landfills — and minimizing water and energy use. This spring, the company opened its highly anticipated second location, a LEED-certified “Liquid Center” and brewery in Asheville, North Carolina.

Though Jordan stepped down as CEO in 2015 — she was succeeded by longtime COO Christine Perich — she remains actively involved in the company, which now generates an estimated $225 million in annual sales.

Melinda Gates

Cofounder and co-chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Bill Gates made his name and fortune as the cofounder of Microsoft, where he served as CEO until 2000, helping him build a net worth of more than $90 billion. Gates now spends the majority of his time working alongside Melinda, his wife, on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the charitable organization the couple founded in 2000. It issues grants for initiatives and programs across the globe, with a focus on global health and education and alleviating poverty.

The largest charitable organization in the world with an endowment of about $40 billion, the foundation focuses heavily on curbing the devastation caused by HIV, malaria, and other infectious diseases. Its reach is already tangible: Since 2000, four countries have eradicated malaria with the foundation’s help. And in 2014, India became polio-free. The couple is also working on a plan to bring mobile banking to the 2 billion adults who don't have a bank account.

Not only are Bill and Melinda Gates the wealthiest couple in the world, they’re also the most generous. They have pledged to give away more than 95% of their own fortune, and they have already donated more than $27 billion to to charitable causes.

Together with billionaire investor Warren Buffett, the couple cofounded The Giving Pledge in 2010, a promise by wealthy individuals to donate the majority of their wealth to philanthropy. The pledge has already attracted more than 150 affluent members, including Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, and Elon Musk.

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