No. 38: Theodore and Vada Stanley

Amount donated in 2010: $29.1-million

Biggest beneficiary: Stanley Family Foundation

Other key beneficiary: Stanley Medical Research Institute

Donors’ backgrounds: Mr. Stanley founded MBI, a Norwalk, Conn., company that develops and markets collectible items.

Mr. Stanley, 79, and his wife, Vada, 78, gave $17.1-million to their Stanley Family Foundation, in Norwalk, Conn., which they established in 1985. The foundation primarily supports mental-health services as well as education and the arts.

The Stanleys also donated $6-million to the Stanley Medical Research Institute, in Chevy Chase, Md., to support research into and treatment of mental illness. They established the institute in 1989. Mr. and Mrs. also gave a total of $6-million to about 40 nonprofits last year, including $3-million to the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, in Cambridge, Mass., for its mental-illness research program; and donations to the Carter Center, in Atlanta, the Manhattan Institute, in New York, and several human-services and youth organizations.

— Maria Di Mento

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