There’s no such thing as a free lunch, but apparently there is such a thing as a free $600 million. In 2004, Eli Broad launched a joint initiative with Harvard and MIT to find solutions to genetically inherited disorders called the Broad Institute. Establishing the Broad Institute cost $100 million, but Broad contributed another $100 million again in 2005. Today, the billionaire added another $400 million to the institute just one day after doubling the Broad Prize for Urban Education to make the award worth $2 million.

According to Forbes:

The new $400 million gift will create an endowment and guarantee the Broad Institute an important stream of financing in the coming years. It also offers more evidence that a stumbling U.S. economy hasn't deterred philanthropy from America's wealthiest. The Broad gift joins other recent mega-donations from billionaires like James LeVoy Sorenson, who bequeathed an estimated $4.5 billion to charity, and Peter Peterson, who wrote a $1 billion check to his own foundation. (See "Economy Slows, Wealthy Giving Grows.")

“Of all of our philanthropy, the Broad Institute has been the investment that has yielded the greatest returns,” said Broad in a statement. “This truly is a new way of doing science, and the Institute’s unique collaborative model for scientific research has resulted in remarkable accomplishments in a very short period of time."

Well at least someone still has money to give away! If he wasn’t trying to treat find a cancer cure, I’d call him a showoff. Really though, Eli Broad is an uber-badass philanthropist.