2006 Sets Records for Largest Donations From Wealthy Americans

The 2006 giving year was remarkable not just for the landmark pledge by the investment guru Warren

Buffett, who promised in June to donate more than $30-billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

At least 14 other individuals pledged $100-million or more each to single institutions last year, setting a new record in the 10 years that The Chronicle has been keeping a tally of the biggest charitable commitments announced each year. The list was started in 1997, when Ted Turner, the cable-television entrepreneur, stunned the philanthropy world by announcing he had pledged $1-billion to start a foundation that would support United Nations programs.

The number of donations of $100-million or more reached 12 in 1998, when several technology entrepreneurs and other wealthy Americans announced substantial donations. In 2005, 10 donations of that size were made.

Last year was marked by numerous big commitments by foundations. The largest donation was $500-million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, followed by a $261.5-million grant from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation to Emory University’s health-sciences programs.

Financial, Real-Estate Moguls

In 2006, the list of the biggest commitments by individuals was dominated by people who made their fortunes in the financial and real-estate industries rather than the technology donors who have played a big role in the lists of recent years.

Following Mr. Buffett in the No. 2 and No. 3 spots were donors who benefited from the sale of the Golden West Financial Corporation to the Wachovia Corporation. Herbert M. and Marion O. Sandler, who jointly served as chief executives of the business, donated $1.3-billion from the sale to their family foundation.

Bernard A. Osher, a co-founder of the bank, put $723.2-million from the sale into his own foundation.

No. 4 on the list was Jim Joseph, a California real-estate developer, who left a $500-million bequest to his foundation, and No. 5 was David Rockefeller, the retired chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, who donated $225-million to the foundation he and his brothers created.

The beneficiaries of the biggest gifts of 2006 were mostly foundations or colleges.

Other big commitments were also made last year to single causes, but not to a single institution. For instance, Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York City, pledged $125-million to five antitobacco groups. He is also widely believed to be the anonymous donor of the $100-million gift to the Johns Hopkins University that was announced in February.

The landmark commitment by Mr. Buffett, who pledged 10 million shares to the Gates Foundation over his lifetime, has grown in value since it was announced. When Mr. Buffett made the news of his gift public, the sum was worth slightly more than $30-billion. By the middle of last week, those shares were worth more than $36-billion.

In addition to the Gates gift, Mr. Buffett announced that shares worth $6-billion would go to several family funds; those shares are now worth nearly $7.5-billion.