American Century founder James Stowers is No. 6 on Forbes magazine's list of billion-dollar donors. Stowers has given away at total of $1.9 billion to the Kansas City medical research center that bears his name, the Stowers Institute for Medical Research.

Forbes writes:

Stowers has not been a member of the Forbes 400 since 2000, but unlike most members who drop off, it wasn't because he lost money or died. The mutual fund tycoon--he started what became the American Century fund family in 1958--decided to give $1.2 billion to endow the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City. Since then he and his wife Virginia have given another $700 million to the institute, which performs genetic research targeted at advancing the understanding of cancer, diabetes, heart disease and other conditions.

This is the first time that Forbes has assembled such a list, which was unsurprisingly led by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who has given away $28 billion, dwarfing second-place George Soros' $7.2 billion in philanthropy.

Stowers founded American Century Investments in 1958. It now has 1,300 employees and AUM of $70 billion. 

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