How The Chronicle of Philanthropy Compiled the List of Top 50 Donors

The 15th annual Philanthropy 50, The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s list of America’s most generous donors, is based primarily on gifts and pledges of cash and stock to nonprofit organizations.

Although The Chronicle sought all information about large charitable donations made by individuals in 2014, not all philanthropists publicly disclose details about their giving, and they are not legally required to do so.

Gifts that donors made from their family foundations were not counted, to avoid including them twice: when the philanthropist gave the money to the foundation and when he or she chose a beneficiary for the money.

The Chronicle counted only those gifts that donors made to organizations with charity or foundation status under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service Code.

Some of America’s biggest philanthropists don’t appear on the current Philanthropy 50 even though they still wrote big checks to charity last year. The Chronicle’s rankings are based on new commitments philanthropists made to their foundations and to other nonprofits in 2014 and do not count payments on past pledges, to avoid counting the same gifts twice.

For example, Ted Turner gave more than $33.9-million to the United Nations Foundation and the Better World Fund, making the donation through his Turner Global Foundation. He does not appear on this year’s list, however, because the grant was the last payment of a $1-billion pledge the 76-year-old philanthropist made in 1997 to establish those two charities.

The legendary investor Warren Buffett, another big name missing from the list, continues to follow through on a long-term commitment he made in 2006, when he pledged more than $30-billion in Berkshire Hathaway stock to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

In 2014 he gave 16,585,510 shares of Berkshire Hathaway class “B” stock, valued at more than $2.1-billion, toward the pledge. To date, Mr. Buffett has given the foundation nearly $15.2-billion.

Family Giving

As part of another commitment he made in 2006, Mr. Buffett last year also gave 1,658,551 shares of the stock, valued at $213.9-million, to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, which is named for his first wife. He promised to give about $3.6-billion to his late wife’s foundation, and so far he has contributed more than $1.3-billion.

In addition, he gave 1,160,981 shares, worth more than $149.7-million, to the foundations of each of his three children, part of another pledge he made in 2006.

The Howard G. Buffett Foundation gives money to agricultural development, clean-water projects, and programs working to fight poverty.

The NoVo Foundation, co-founded by Peter Buffett and his wife, Jennifer, seeks to improve the well-being of girls and women globally and supports economic and education programs.

The Sherwood Foundation, founded by daughter Susan Buffett, supports social justice and early childhood education.

Warren Buffett has promised to give a total of about $1.3-billion apiece to those three foundations. To date, he has given roughly $673-million to each of his children’s philanthropies.

The Philanthropy 50 report was compiled by Maria Di Mento, with assistance from Kathleen Kelly.