American Century Investments founder Jim Stowers and his wife Virginia joined Warren Buffett and others in making a pledge to donate at least half their wealth to charity. The news was picked up by media outlets including The Kansas City Star and Kansas City Business Journal.

The couple pledged to donate "more than 99 percent" of their wealth to philanthropy.

Buffett on Wednesday released the list of those who have made the pledge. Click here to view the list.

"Virginia and I wanted to give back something more valuable than money to the millions of people who made our success possible with American Century Investments," Stowers wrote. "We wanted to give people "Hope for Life"- Hope for a better life. Our vision is to make a significant contribution to humanity through medical research by expanding our understanding of the secrets of life and by improving life's quality through innovative approaches to the causes, treatment and prevention of diseases."

Stowers started American Century, then called Twentieth Century Mutual Funds, 1958.

In 1994, following a bout with cancer, Stowers founded the Stowers Institute for Medical Research along with his wife. The $2 billion biomedical research institute supports research surrounding the genes and proteins that control the fundamental processes of living cells in an effort to combat cancer. 

Edited by: Armie Margaret Lee


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