Meet T&C's Top 50 Philanthropists of 2018

Grand Plan: Shattering donation records.

Making Headlines: The widow of Sysco founder Herbert Irving gave $600 million to Columbia University and New York–­Presbyterian Hospital on the same day the Met got an $80 million bequest from her.

Grand Plan: Upping the ante on university gifts.

Making Headlines: The aviation tycoon gave $100 million to his alma mater, Notre Dame. The gift will be fulfilled through a new structure that pays regular installments and then, at his death, gives control of Ricci’s company, which owns Flexjets and other businesses, to the school, which can liquidate as it sees fit.

Grand Plan: Leveraging their celebrity for refugees, and more.

Making Headlines: The glam couple recently endowed their Clooney Foundation for Justice with $20 million. They also gave $500,000 to help underwrite this year’s March for Our Lives demonstration.

Grand Plan: Creating economic gender equality.

Making Headlines: The Gateses donated $4.8 billion to their foundation last year. In March they pledged $170 million to help women flex their economic muscle. “When money flows into the hands of women,” Melinda wrote, “everything changes."

Grand Plan: Promoting social justice.

Making Headlines: The former quarterback just gave away $1 million to more than 30 organizations, including Mothers Against Police Brutality and Meals on Wheels, garnering matching contributions from such celebrities as Serena Williams.

Grand Plan: Helping families cope with cancer.

Making Headlines: Hall of Fame hockey player and Boston Bruins president Cam has, with wife Paulina, raised more than $30 million to endow cancer care facilities around Boston. Earlier this year they unveiled their Marlene Neely Center for Digestive Health at Tufts.

Grand Plan: Advocating for immigrants, especially those currently held in U.S. detention centers.

Making Headlines: Last spring the ACLU ambassador’s speech about growing up as an immigrant went viral, and the Indian-born Top Chef host continues to champion the rights of refugees and Dreamers.

Grand Plan: Ending the poverty cycle.

Making Headlines: Even before he was tapped to lead the Robin Hood Foundation, becoming the first CEO of NYC’s largest poverty-fighting organization, Moore was a star: a Rhodes scholar, army captain, and best-selling author whom Willie Geist touted as a 2028 presidential candidate.

Grand Plan: Using his popularity for the greater good.

Making Headlines: The Philadelphia Eagles star donated his entire 2017 salary of $1 million to educational causes in his hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia, and in Philadelphia, Boston, and St. Louis. He also raised an additional $1,326,799.44 by asking fans to donate in their own communities.

Grand Plan: Giving her brother, Warren Buffett, some competition.

Making Headlines: Elliott pledged $105.8 million to the Montage Health Foundation in Monterey, California, to create Ohana House, a behavioral health center for children and adolescents.

Grand Plan: Making his hotel brand a model for sustainability.

Making Headlines: The chairman of Starwood Capital Group partnered with the Natural Resources Defense Council to create the 1 Hotels Fellowship, which awards funds to entrepreneurs for projects addressing environmental issues.

Grand Plan: Providing affordable eyecare to those in need.

Making Headlines: The founders of eyewear brand Warby Parker have donated more than 3 million pairs of glasses through the Buy a Pair, Give a Pair program, which also works with nonprofits to provide eye exams in developing countries. They are replicating that model for schools in NYC and Baltimore.

Grand Plan: Turning today’s charity recipients into tomorrow’s tech consumers.

Making Headlines: The executive director of the Avallain Foundation—the nonprofit set up by the founders of the Swiss educational software company—runs programs (including virtual partnerships with top U.S. prep schools) in refugee camps and in rural Africa to make residents tech-savvy.

Grand Plan: Giving philanthropy a better user experience.

Making Headlines: “Le Petit Bill Gates Français” created the Epic Foundation to lure young givers by using hedge fund–style vetting to pick a portfolio of charities based on their efficiency and measurable impact.

Grand Plan: Ending workplace sexual harassment.

Making Headlines: After Harvey Weinstein’s reckoning, hundreds of Holly­wood celebrities, including Reese Witherspoon and Eva Longoria, created Time’s Up to establish legal funds and promote legislation to punish complicit companies.

Grand Plan: Fighting hate and violence.

Making Headlines: Their Righteous Persons Foundation, which was launched to preserve the lessons of the Holocaust, has expanded to other causes. And this winter they donated $500,000 to March for Our Lives.

Grand Plan: To lower rates of mass incarceration.

Making Headlines: Gund made waves last year when she announced she was using $100 million from the sale of Roy Lichtenstein's 1962 painting "Masterpiece" to fund a new initiative aimed at criminal justice system. Ford Foundation President Darren Walker has teamed up with the the Art for Justice Fund to give the money away.

Grand Plan: Enacting commonsense gun policy in his stores.

Making Headlines: After the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, the CEO of Dick’s Sporting Goods stopped carrying assault rifles and selling firearms to people under 21. Walmart and L.L. Bean followed suit.

Grand Plan: Funding groundbreaking cancer research. ­

Making Headlines: The billionaire tech titan and his wife established the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy to expedite research into cutting-edge treatments. One involves a gene-editing technology called ­CRISPR that lets scientists locate and remove bits of DNA from live cells. The first human trials are being carried out at Penn, UCSF, and the MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Grand Plan: Making philanthropy their “third act.”

Making Headlines: Since ceding creative control of her company last year, DVF has focused on raising $100 million for a museum at the Statue of Liberty and promoting projects that support courageous women. Diller is building a $250 million performing arts center in NYC.