Those are saints, very rare both in the 99% and the 1%. Being poor is no assurance of sainthood -- people are poor by birth, through circumstance & all sorts of personal shortcomings. Being wealthy, otoh, nearly precludes sainthood -- a (Christian) saint who happened onto wealth gives it away. This is in no way a sermon, i don't advocate sainthood or shoot for it myself -- simply an analysis: If you want to find a saint, looking among the 1% is impractical.
And yet in the .0001% is where you find most of the funding for our enduring charitable foundations. More so in the US than elsewhere though.
Andrew Carnegie, a century ago, declared it disgraceful to die rich. Benjamin Franklin, perhaps the founder of modern philanthropy in the USA, wrote in 1740, the goal of philanthropic giving is to change society so as to do away with the need for charity.
Some examples
George Soros has devoted $10 billionhalf of his total fortune over the last 20 yearsto helping dissidents in Central Europe, financing drug-rehabilitation programs in Baltimore, and educating the persecuted Roma people of Hungary.
Bill and Melinda Gates give $4 billion annually to develop African agriculture and to eradicate malaria.
Matched by Warren Buffet (who is leaving less than 1/10000th of his wealth to his heirs and the rest to charity).
New York financier John Paulson gave $100 million for the upkeep of Central Park,
Stephen Schwarzman, a Wall Street investor, donated $100 million to renovate the New York Public Library and another $100 million to finance scholarships for American students in China.
Private giving underwrites almost all American cultural institutions and major universities. By contrast, in Europe, such institutions rely on public money more commonly.
I remember the disaster relief giving for tsunami and such, how there would be lists circulated about what countries gave what money. Folks were calling the US stingy because the government money was not considered high enough. But in the US more was given by private donation than any single nation, including the US, but that doesn't make the papers internationally. Folks like their stereotypes.