Thanks in large part to donations from Margaret A. Cargill, heir to the agricultural and food conglomerate, the nation's 50 biggest donors gave $7.1 billion more last year than they did in 2010.
Even with that boost to a total of $10.4 billion in
charitable giving in 2011, giving still fell below the 2001 level of $12.5 billion, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, which each year produces a list of the 50 most generous donors.
Ms. Cargill, who died in 2006, topped the list with a $6 billion bequest, including funds to support animal welfare, arts and culture, and care for elderly people.
William S. Dietrich II, whose father founded Pittsburgh-based Dietrich Industries, scored second place on the list with a $500 million bequest for endowments of colleges and universities. Mr. Dietrich, who died in October 2011, set aside $200 million in trusts during the mid-1990s and sought to increase those assets to $1 billion. Cancer cut short his efforts, though, so the sum only grew to about half that, according to the Chronicle.
Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen landed third on the list with $372.6 million in gifts to his family foundation, the Allen Institute for Brain Science and the Experience Music Project.
The list doesn't include hefty donations made through pledges to which individuals had previously committed, such as those by the habitually generous Bill Gates, Microsoft's other founder, and Berkshire Hathaway's Warren E. Buffett. Both of these men spent 2011 paying off pledges from past years instead of making new ones, according to the Chronicle.
Hedge fund financier George Soros and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg round out the top five with donations of $335 million and $311.3 million , respectively. The two men, and nine of the other top 50 donors, made their money in the finance sector — the profession most represented on the list.
Mr. Bloomberg also is one of 12 donors on the list to have signed the Giving Pledge, which commits individuals to giving the majority of their wealth away to philanthropy.
A total of 29 donors gave $50 million or more last year. Of the 50 donors, 32 were on the list for the first time. Seven of the donors are under 50, while three are older than 90, according to the Chronicle.
The top 10 donors also included Raymond G. and Ruth C. Perelman, with $227.3 million in donations, David and Dana Dornsife with $200 million, Robert E. and Dorothy J. King (he founded Peninsula Capital) with $166.5 million in gifts, Arthur G. and Margaret B. Glasgow with a $125 million bequest and John and Julie Mork, who gave away $110 million.
One of the more interesting stories comes from No. 16 on the list, business entrepreneur Eric Ross, whose estate donated $76.5 million after his death in 2010. The money is to go towards scholarships. Mr. Ross himself never went to college, having been forced out of school at age 14 shortly before he escaped Nazi Germany. His parents died at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, according to the Chronicle. Before his death at age 91, he gave away about $150 million.
