Christopher Hohn, the son of a car mechanic and a legal secretary, is a billionaire known for his relatively humble lifestyle. “No yachts, no private planes, no art,” he says. Hohn, a hedge fund manager, gets around town in a Toyota Prius or on a bicycle.  

But there is nothing modest about his philanthropy. Since Hohn started the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) in 2002, he and his London-based organization have given away $5 billion to health, climate, and child protection programs in priority regions including Africa, China, India, and Europe. Through a model often called venture philanthropy, the money that funds these efforts comes from his $78 billion investment fund, with Hohn—considered one of the U.K.’s most generous philanthropists—personally donating $328 million in 2024 alone.   

African countries are some of the most neglected when it comes to public health funding, and in January, CIFF expanded its support for the elimination of trachoma—the leading infectious cause of blindness—after Burundi, Egypt, Mauritania, and Senegal joined a list of 11 African countries that declared the disease was no longer a public health problem  in 2025.

CIFF withdrew from funding U.S.-based NGOs in October 2025, citing a lack of confidence in government policy toward foreign funders, but helped to fill the gap left by USAID cuts by providing funds to Mana Nutrition, which produces therapeutic foods to treat malnutrition in children.

Hohn plans to give away all of his wealth in his lifetime. “Who wants to be the richest person in the world?” he says. “Isn't it better to be the most philanthropic person in the world?”