Say what you will about Bill Gates but there is no denying that he has had an impressive impact on our society during his leadership at Microsoft and continues to be a force of change through his foundation along with his wife Melinda.

According to the figures in the infographic Bill Gates has given $28 Billion to various charities since 2007, which apparently accounts for almost 48% of his net-worth.

One of his biggest charitable efforts has been towards the eradication of malaria and an end to polio. He was also instrumental in the creation of The Living Pledge which is an effort to get the richest people in the world to publicly commit to giving away half their net-worth in their lifetime.

The multi-billionaire Warren Buffet is probably the most well known name to take the pledge.

via Frugal Dad

Since 2007 Bill Gates has given away 48 percent of his net-worth for charity [Infographic] is a post from: The Inquisitr

If, like me, you have trouble watching The Price is Right without a snoozing grandmother reclining behind you, or it just doesn’t feel the same to you without debonair animal-rights monolith and Happy Gilmore pugilist extraordinaire Bob Barker, you missed out on television gold yesterday. I’m talking about that hearing-about-your-mom’s-sorority-days kind of surreality that can’t be expected, duplicated, or escaped from.

I’m talking about seeing Snoop Dog on The Price is Right’s Celebrity Charity Week, laid back, with his mind on his money and his money on his mind.

Snoop coached contestants in order to raise matching funds for his Snoop Football League, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: football for inner city at-risk kids. Snoop’s skills, advising, and intimate knowledge of ranch dressing net him nearly $73,000 for his charity, and post-New Year hangover fodder for the likes of you and me.

Roll that beautiful bean footage!

On the celebrity dais this week are Jenny McCarthy, Neil Patrick Harris, Chris Daughtry, and Heidi Klum. McCarthy and Harris are pretty funny kids, but this is going to be hard to top.

Like the video? Give us your thoughts below!

Snoop Dogg On Price Is Right, Hilarity Ensues (Video) is a post from: The Inquisitr

Lady Gaga on Wednesday announced the formation of the Born This Way foundation with the help of her mommy monster Cynthia Germanotta.

In a statement released by the foundation Gaga said:

“My mother and I have initiated a passion project. We call it the Born This WayFoundation … Together we hope to establish a standard of Bravery and Kindness, as well as a community worldwide that protects and nurtures others in the face of bullying and abandonment.”

The foundation hopes to work with various partners to spread their message, included in those partnerships are the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and others.

The organization says their focus will be on “youth empowerment and equality by addressing issues like self-confidence, well-being, anti-bullying, mentoring and career development and will utilize digital mobilization as one of the means to create positive change.”

Gaga’s foundation announcement comes just one day after Justin Bieber announced his Believe charity drive to help combat bullying. Bieber also announced that part of the proceeds from his recently released Christmas album Under the Mistletoe will also go to his charity drive.

Speaking of her group and their partners Gaga notes:

 ”Together we hope to establish a standard of Bravery and Kindness, as well as a community worldwide that protects and nurtures others in the face of bullying and abandonment.”

Will you be following Lady Gaga and her charity as they work to bring more attention to bullying?

[image via ShutterStock]

Lady Gaga Launches ‘Born This Way Foundation’ is a post from: The Inquisitr

Warren Buffett has once again dug deep down in his pockets to make a sizable donation. The “Oracle” of Omaha donated $1.78 billion this week to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and several other charities as part of his 2006 plan to donate 99 percent of his wealth.

Buffett according to the SEC donated 23.31 million Class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) (BRKb.N) with 19.34 million of those shares going to the Gates Foundation.

Along with the Gates Foundation Buffett made donations to his families charities including the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation (his first wife), and charities for children Susan, Peter and Howard.

Warren Buffett has already donated $11 billion of Berkshire shares with much of that money going to the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation which aims to fight education, health and poverty problems around the world and largely in developing countries where they can get the most “bang for the buck.”

Warren Buffett Donates $1.78 Billion To Charity is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you own Child of Eden, Ubisoft is giving you a chance starting today to play the game for a good cause: helping out the Japanese earthquake relief efforts.

R&B artist Ne-Yo and Ubisoft have already pitched in $100,000 towards the earthquake relief efforts and, for every person who beats Ne-Yo’s high sore of 306,800 on the Evolution level in the “Normal Kinect” leaderboard, Ubisoft will donate an additional dollar, up to a maximum of $20,000.

“After the devastating events in Japan, I was inspired firsthand by the way people have come together to help out the country,” said Ne-Yo. “Child of Eden is a beautiful game that’s all about hope and happiness and when Ubisoft approached me with a unique way to continue to help the people of Japan, the birthplace of the game, I was excited to join the cause.”

Additionally, Ubisoft will be running a contest over on Twitter where contestants can snap a photo of their high score and tweet it with the hashtag #childofeden for the chance to meet Ne-Yo himself. If you needed a reason to play Child of Eden today, I think this is it.

via Joystiq

Beat Ne-Yo’s High Score in Child of Eden, Help Japan is a post from: The Inquisitr

Britney Spears is supporting her fellow southerns by hosting a charity event to benefit the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

The event, which has been named An Evening of Southern Style is a charity dinner that will feature a traditional southern dinner.

The dinner will raise money for Louisiana recovery efforts and will happen at a private Beverly Hills residence on May 11. The money will go to the St. Bernard Project which builds homes for those people who lost their houses during the disaster in 2005.

Spears dad, a former caterer will be overseeing the kitchen and created the menu for the event which will include a soft shell crab fish fry and Shrimp & Grits.

Spears said on Wednesday:

“I am so honored to be a part of this cause. Louisiana will always be a part of my soul.”

Britney Spears To Host Hurricane Katrina Dinner is a post from: The Inquisitr

Former Victoria’s Secret Angel and Supermodel Heidi Klum has joined the Stand Up 2 Cancer campaign, posing in nothing but a sweatshirt.

If you’re unfamiliar with Stand Up to Cancer, the charitable organization works with doctors around the world to find new innovative ways to detect and fight cancer, while looking for ways to offer preventative medicine.

Every September the organization holds a one-night telethon and Klum was tapped to host the event.

According to Heidi:

“If you don’t want to be out, you can be in by joining me and the Stand Up to Cancer movement in the fight against cancer. Let’s all say Auf Wiedersehen (German for “goodbye”) to cancer together!”

Heidi Klum: Stand Up 2 Cancer PSA [Pic] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Japan could be footing more of their own clean up bill and other recovery efforts simply because many people in the United States believe that a developed, high-tech country like Japan can afford to pay for their own cleanup.

The American Red Cross announced on Wednesday that they had raised $47 million, while at the same point in time Haiti efforts had yielded $92.3 million. Another big organization World Vision also announced that their own fundraiser efforts have raised just $3 million at this time, compared to $15.8 million during the same first week period of Haiti.

As expected, fundraiser efforts during the first week of Katrina blow those numbers away with nearly $500 million being raised.

With the first week of a tragedy garnering the most press coverage, including the most images and video of devastation first week fund gathering is considered an important metric by many experts, thankfully Japan has a good deal of money to deal with their own problems, because they aren’t getting the help many other poorer countries receive.

While I feel bad for Japan relief efforts, it should be noted that the country has developed an amazing relief effort system over the last 30 years and they are fixing roads, delivering aid and focusing on the most important issues at a rate that makes FEMA look like a bunch of preschoolers.

Have you donated to Japan? Why or why not?

Donations To Japan Roll In From U.S But Less Than Haiti, Katrina is a post from: The Inquisitr

According to Andriasang, some of the biggest contributions have come from Nintendo ($3.65m), SEGA Sammy ($2.45m) and Sony ($3.65m and 30,000 radios). Dead or Alive publisher Tecmo has donated $123,000, while Namco Bandai has contributed $1.23m and closed its arcades to help conserve much-needed energy.

Namco Bandai is not alone in attempting to save power – companies are also turning off game servers, with Square Enix and Konami shutting down online play in Final Fantasy MMOs and Metal Gear Solid 4 respectively.

Awesome, heart-warming work, all of you!

The image for this article, by the way, is from Capcom’s Tatsuro Iwamoto, art director for the wonderful Phoenix Wright series of games. According to the dudes at Tiny Cartridge, the text above Phoenix, Miles, and Maya reads: “Let’s work hard and not be defeated by the earthquake!!” Indeed.

See also: You can find the English language version of the Japanese Red Cross Society site here.

[Via Andriasang]

Game companies dig deep, donate to Japan relief efforts is a post from: The Inquisitr

It’s time to pass on the usual silliness around these parts and get serious for a moment. You may have read about the tragic recent death of game designer Brian Wood, who died in a car crash protecting his pregnant wife, Erin.

According to Erin, Brian’s final earthly act was to swerve his vehicle so he’d take the full impact of a head-on collision with another car, saving her life and that of the couple’s unborn child.

Well, two awesome friends of the Wood family have decided to set up The Brian Wood Memorial Trust to help Erin and her family through this difficult time. It’s heartening to see the games industry pull together like this and look after their own, so I dearly wanted to give this a plug.

Frankly, they don’t make heroes like Brian Wood any more, so I urge Inquisitr readers to recognise this courageous man and help out his young family. You can donate by going HERE, and remember: every dollar helps. Thanks, and rest in peace, Brian Wood.

The Brian Wood Memorial Trust

Memorial fund set up for family of game designer Brian Wood is a post from: The Inquisitr

All you have to do is drag your derriere onto Xbox Live next Wednesday or Thursday, switch your Halo 3 (or Halo ODST) emblem to the heart in the screenshot above (very important, that), and play any online mode in the game.

In other words, you get to play a fun game, and assist some desperately needy fellow human beings … all for free. I’m not sure how Bungie could ask you to do any less. For every 1,000 people who play, Bungie is making a $100 donation to the American Red Cross for Haiti relief efforts, up to a maximum of $77,000. You can read more about it here.

Alternatively, you can pick up this $19.99 “Be A Hero” shirt from the Bungie store – all profits will be going straight to relief efforts:

[Via Bungie]

Play Halo 3, help Haiti is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has donated $100,000 to a group that’s fighting Malaria. The procedure used, providing gum and chocolate to patients may seem a little strange, but it’s also a simple and cheap means to fighting the disease.

Under the program children are given gum to painlessly determine if they carry the deadly disease, while chocolate is used to destroy a patients disease-feeding fat cells.

The program has shown a good deal of promise and the $100,000 donation should help increase testing. [Telegraph]

Bill Gates Gives $100,000 To Fight Malaria With Gum And Chocolate is a post from: The Inquisitr

Founder Camila Batmanghelidjh said: “They were moved by the tough stories they heard and want to be genuine participants.”
“I got the feeling the donation was something they had planned from the start of their careers.”

The “Fix You” hitmakers have visited the charity’s various centers and also plan to give as many children as they can music lessons.
Coldplay are not the first stars to donate money to help children.

In January 2008, Johnny Depp gave $2 million to Great Ormond Street Hospital for saving his daughter’s life.

The Hollywood actor secretly visited the London children’s hospital where his daughter Lily-Rose was treated in March 2007 after her kidneys failed, to personally hand over the sum as a thank you.

In November 2007, Johnny – who was dressed as his “Pirates of the Caribbean” character Captain Jack Sparrow – spent hours at Great Ormond Street hospital reading bedtime stories to patients.

Coldplay Donate $1.6 Million To A Children’s Charity is a post from: The Inquisitr

I might hate Lindsay’s horrid leggings, but I don’t hate the fact that she’s giving away all her sales proceeds to charity. It’s even forgivable that she managed to sneak a pair into her recent photoshoot with Elle and get all vampy in them.

If only brand 6126 had just skipped the knee pads and promoted the charitable side of things, perhaps we wouldn’t have been so shocked when they sold out this summer.

Lindsay’s October Elle Gallery Up Next!

Lindsay Lohan Brings Her Leggings to Elle Photoshoot is a post from: The Inquisitr

Louisiana’s attorney general office is monitoring more than a hundred domain names registered in the past day related to the storm, most containing words such as “charity” and “relief.” While some may be legit, many are feared to be fake fronts for crooks to steal kind-hearted people’s credit card and bank account information, then use it for their own selfish purposes. Some are even looking ahead with names related to Hanna, the next storm about to hit the U.S. coast. Several of the domains are results of squatters looking to churn out some cash from the storms and are already up for sale on eBay or Sedo.

Phishers have also started sending out e-mails to families along the Gulf Coast that ask for their bank information to “confirm” it in the storm’s wake. These same sorts of attacks all popped up in the days surrounding Hurricane Katrina three years ago.

If you’re interested in contacting a legit charity working to help families displaced by Hurricane Gustav, check out the list below. You can also find everything from live cameras and storm tracking tools to Web services devoted to helping find loved ones at our Online Storm Resource Center.

Legitimate Gustav Charities:

• American Red Cross
• Americares
• Baton Rouge Area Foundation
• Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans
• Direct Relief International
• Food for the Poor
• Mercy Corps
• North Shore Animal League
• Operation USA
• Salvation Army of Alabama-Louisiana-Mississippi
• Save the Children

UPDATE*** For the latest storm stream, see Hurricane Ike Live.

Tracking Gustav: Storm Scammers Hit the Net is a post from: The Inquisitr