He started doing charity at the age of 16

One of the interesting facts about John Davison Rockefeller is that he started doing charity at the age of 16. Rockefeller's charitable contributions began with his first work as a clerk at the age of 16, when he donated 6% of his salary to charity, as documented in his personal ledger. By the age of twenty, his charitable contributions had surpassed ten percent of his income. The majority of his donations were to churches. His church was later linked with the Northern Baptist Convention, which was created after the American Civil War by American Baptists in the North with ties to their historic missions to establish schools and universities for freedmen in the South. As Rockefeller's wealth expanded, so did his charitable donations, which were mostly directed toward educational and public health programs, but also toward basic science and the arts.

In 1884, Rockefeller contributed significantly to the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary for African-American women, which later became Spelman College. Before the Civil War, Rockefeller's in-laws, the Spelman's, were fervent abolitionists who were committed to assisting the Underground Railroad. The vision of the school impressed John Rockefeller, who paid off the institution's debt. Rockefeller Hall, Spelman's oldest existing building, is named after him. Rockefeller also contributed significantly to Denison University and other Baptist universities.

Under the leadership of William Rainey Harper, Rockefeller donated $80 million to the University of Chicago, transforming it from a modest Baptist college into a world-class institution by 1900. He also made a contribution to the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society for the establishment of Central Philippine University, the first Baptist and second American university in Asia, in 1905 in the mainly Catholic Philippines.

Rockefeller's General Education Board was established in 1903 to encourage education at all levels throughout the country. In keeping with the Baptists' past objectives, it was notably active in helping black schools in the South. Rockefeller also supported established eastern institutions such as Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Brown, Bryn Mawr, Wellesley, and Vassar.