A survey examines who are the largest philanthropy donors in the ethnic Chinese world.

Hong Kong property tycoon Li Ka-shing, Alibaba Group chairman Jack Ma Yun and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s wife Priscilla Chan are top of the list of philanthropists in the ethnic Chinese world, the South China Morning Post has quoted Hurun, an organisation tracking wealth trends, as saying.

Each of these three persons contributed more than RMB10 billion ($1.57 billion) to charitable causes, the report said. Li has been an active philanthropist in China for decades. The chairman of CK Hutchison Holdings and Cheung Kong Property Holdings has donated more than HK$1.5 billion (around $187 million) through the foundation taking his name, the report said. (This publication was unable to verify the figures in the SCMP report from Hurun at the time of going to press.)

Among other details, 150 ethnic Chinese philanthropists together donated more than RMB500 million to various charitable causes. Geographically, some 12 come from Guangdong province, while Fujian, Hong Kong and Taiwan each are home to five such philanthropists.

The report said that on the mainland, the largest single donation came from Wang Jianlin, chairman of Dalian Wanda Group and the richest man in China, giving RMB1 billion yuan to rebuild ancient temples in Nanjing city, Jiangsu province, in 2010.

Elsewhere in Asia, other rankings of wealthy donors show how philanthropsits have left their mark, suggesting that such charitable activity is also an important area for wealth managers seeking to offer advisory services and support for their clients.

Hurun, on its website, has details of its 2014 Philanthropy List 2014 that has been issued in English, giving Jack Ma’s family top ranking for donations that year, at $1.45 billion. 

Other Asia figures
As reported in August, Binod Chaudhary, Nepal's first billionaire, according to Forbes, became the first philanthropist from the country to make Forbes Asia's Heroes of Philanthropy list. The chairman of Chaudhary Group, a conglomerate that comprises nearly 80 companies, pledged $2.5 million through his CG Foundation for earthquake relief after the first earthquake hit the South Asian country in April.

The list, which includes philanthropists from 13 countries across Asia-Pacific, highlighted that social causes and education appear as the focus of philanthropists from China. Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, donated $2.9 billion in share options last year to social welfare causes and education, with another $2.4 billion going into a charitable trust. Meanwhile, billionaires Pan Shiyi and Zhang Xin of Soho China, a real estate firm, announced last year they will donate $100 million to fund overseas study by Chinese undergraduates at the world’s top universities.

Of note, India's tech boom over the last two decades, which has infiltrated the country's wealth management space, appeared to be driving its philanthropic efforts too. Several individuals from Infosys, the country’s second largest IT firm, featured on this year's list. These include Kris Gopalakrishnan, Nandan and Rohini Nilekani and Mohandas Pai, who donated to projects including medical research, education, children who live in poverty and care for the elderly.