The Chronicle of Philanthropy has released its list of the 50 biggest benefactors in the U.S.
The Chronicle says:
Twenty donors made gifts of $100 million or more last year, just shy of a record of 21 such gifts in 2006, according to
The Chronicle's annual ranking of the 50 most generous Americans.
And
despite a turbulent economy, fundraisers seeking donations of
$10 million or more predict another strong year of big gifts in 2008.
The story continues:
Anonymous gifts are not counted on the list, but the number of such large donations is growing swiftly:
At least four donations of $100 million or more were made anonymously last year.
While
the country's richest man, Bill Gates, chairman of the software giant
Microsoft, did not announce any new megagifts last year, a majority of
the year's biggest donations came from the country's billionaires.
Twenty-eight donors on the list counted among the 400 wealthiest
Americans, according to
Forbes magazine's
most recent list.
"There
is a lot of great social cachet about giving away a lot of money right
now," says Bruce Flessner, a Minneapolis consultant who works on
billion-dollar fundraising campaigns. "These are fortunes that are
beyond anybody's ability to give away or spend in any number of
lifetimes."
