giving. The Foundation Center found for 2007 that $18.5 billion was granted by family foundations. 5 If this total was added to individual and household giving, total contributions directed by living donors would be about $248 billion or 81 percent of total estimated giving.

The largest gifts in 2008 Charitable contributions from the nation’s wealthiest households play an important role in total giving from individuals. The Internal Revenue Service reported, for example, that the top 0.0003 percent of tax returns (the 400 tax returns with the highest income) in 2006 accounted for 1. 31

percent of total adjusted gross income that year, and 5. 3 percent of total itemized deductions for charitable donations. About 326,000 tax returns with income of $1 million or more (about 0.2 percent of tax returns) claimed 26 percent of all itemized contributions for 2006.

The largest gifts in the U.S. have been tracked for more than a decade by The Chronicle of Philanthropy and Slate.com. Since 2000, the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University has published the Million Dollar List, which monitors gifts of $1 million or more that are announced publicly and covered by the media.

Donor(s)

Peter G. Peterson and Joan Ganz Cooney

David G. and Suzanne Deal Booth

Michael R. Bloomberg Helen L. Kimmel H.F. (Gerry) and Marguerite B. Lenfest

Table 1
Living donors of $100 million or more in 2008

Principal source of wealth

Finance

Donation total

$1 billion

Finance

300 million

Recipient(s)

Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics, and Sesame Workshop

University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Media and entertainment Real estate Media and entertainment

235 million

156. 5 million 139. 9 million

David Rockefeller

Family wealth,

Finance

137. 8 million

Jeffrey S. Skoll Stephen A. Schwarzman

Data: Slate 60 and The Chronicle of Philanthropy

Technology Investments

110. 8 million 105 million

1, 200 nonprofit groups focused on the arts,
education, health care, and social services
New York University Langone Medical Center
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Curtis Institute of
Music, Williamson Free School of Mechanical
Trades, Washington and Lee University, Barnes
Foundation, and Columbia University School of Law
Harvard University, Stone Barns Center for Food
and Agriculture, Mayor’s Fund to Advance New
York City, American Museum of Natural History,
Southwest Research Station, New York Botanical
Garden, and Museum for African Art
Skoll Foundation
New York Public Library,
Inner-City Scholarship Fund