Sir Elton John confirmed his status as a major charitable benefactor by topping the celebrity names appearing on this year's Sunday Times Giving List. The veteran musician donated more than £24 million to the charities that he supports in the last twelve months, dwarfing the amount donated by many of the other famous names on the list. The money mainly went to his AIDS Foundations both in this country and in America. The overall list will be available later this week, but will include a number of people from the world of music and sport who contributed a sizeable percentage of their wealth to charity.
On that basis, Liverpool FC's outgoing captain Steven Gerrard ranked as the second UK celebrity with some 3.14% of his wealth supporting worthy causes. Just behind him in third and fourth places were two Grand Slam golfing winners, Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose.
The old and the young of the music world made their mark on the top ten Celebrities. One Direction may have had their band issues during the year, but they still saw fit to give around 0.92% of their resources (£1.2 million) to charity. They raised more than £225,000 for 'Stand Up To Cancer' through a competition to meet the band. At the other end of the age range, 70-year-old Eric Clapton may not be in the news quite as much, but that didn't stop him donating about £1.4 million (0.88% of his wealth) to the causes he backs.
Chelsea striker Didier Drogba and ex- Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand also featured in the top ten celebs.
The overall figures suggested that Britain's wealthiest people are donating vast sums to their chosen charities, some £2.58 billion over the last twelve months. It was a record year for the rich to give over 1% of their wealth away, with around 105 of the 300 people on the list hitting that commendable milestone.
Lord Sainsbury and his family topped the overall list, donating a massive 40.1 per cent of their wealth, which amounted to some £203.2m in total.
The top five celebrities on the overall list were:
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Sir Elton John, donated £24.1 million (8.92% of wealth)
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Steven Gerrard, £1.3m (3.14%)
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Rory McIlroy, £1m (2.63%)
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Justin Rose, £0.6m (2.57%)
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Coldplay, £3.8m (1.82%)
