Margaret Anne Cargill (September 24, 1920 - August 1, 2006) was an American philanthropist and heiress to part of the Cargill fortune. She gave away more than $200 million anonymously.
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Cargill was born 24 September 1920, in Los Angeles, the granddaughter of W. W. Cargill[1], and grew up in the Midwest. She earned a degree in arts education from the University of Minnesota and moved to Southern California[2]. She died from complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease[3] on 1 August 2006 at her home in La Jolla, San Diego, California.
Cargill was one of eight heirs to the Minneapolis-based grain-trading conglomerate Cargill[2], Forbes Magazine listed her in 2005 as the 164th richest American, with a net worth of $1.8 billion[1]. She was a major donor to the American Red Cross, the Nature Conservancy and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian[3].
She gave away more than $200 million, most of it in the period between 1990 and her death in 2006, and always anonymously[3].
She established the Anne Ray Charitable Trust[4] which provides grants for charitable[5] and educational programs[6] and scholarships[7].
She provided that, after her death, the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation would use her wealth for charitable purposes.[8] [9][10]