For 2008, the total recorded on the Slate 60 list reached $15.78 billion, up from more than $7.79 billion in 2007.6 The largest gifts on the list in 2008 were bequests or pledges. The threshold gift amount to be listed was $25 million, down from $30 million in 2007.

Business Week continued its list of the 50 “most generous” givers, based on estimated giving, including pledges, from 2004 through 2008.7 Of the people on the list, at least four contributed amounts that exceed current net worth:

Veronica Atkins (widow of Robert Atkins of the Atkins diet);

Bernard Osher (a banker, art collector, and businessman);

Ted and Veda Stanley (he founded The Danbury Mint, which grew to become MBI); and

Shelby White (widow of investor Leon Levy).

Eleven on the list ( 22 percent) had contributed 10 percent or less of their net worth, according to publicly available information. These include:

The Walton Family (net worth at $93 billion; donations at 2 percent of net worth from 2004–2008);

John Kluge (net worth of $9 billion; donations at 8 percent from 2004– 2008); and

Dan Duncan and family (net worth of $7.6 billion; donations at 4 percent from 2004–2008).

Women Moving Millions
raises millions
An initiative launched publicly in
late 2007, Women Moving Millions

challenged women donors to commit $1 million each to a network of causes linked through the Women’s Funding Network. Founders Helen LaKelly Hunt and Swanee Hunt made a joint gift of $10 million, and by mid-2008, the effort reported $105 million raised toward its $150-million goal. 8 Donations to the initiative went to members of the Women’s Funding Network (WFN), which comprise more than 145 women’s foundations on six continents, or directly to the WFN. The goal to raise $150 million was set in part to help propel the collection of women’s funds to total $1 billion or more. 9

Philanthropic Giving Index tracks
success of fundraising techniques;
most fundraising tools decline
in 2008
The Philanthropic Giving Index, con-
ducted by the Center on Philanthropy
at Indiana University, surveys a panel
of senior fundraising executives every
six months and assesses their fund-
raising confidence. In December 2008,
respondents reported lower levels of
success in the fundraising vehicles
most often used in their organizations
compared to other years. These fund-
raising tools include: Major gifts,
planned giving, foundation grants,
and direct mail. 10 Figure 1 shows the
year-end success levels for these four
fundraising techniques, as averaged
for the 250 or so regular respondents
to the Philanthropic Giving Index.

The figure shows that, generally, 2008 had the most pronounced drops in fundraising success since 2002. The steepest drops were in major gifts