To gather data on donors, The Chronicle began with information it has published in the last year about donations of $1-million or more; it also conducted additional research on wealthy people and their donations to charitable organizations.

Although The Chronicle attempted to compile all information about large contributions made by individuals in 2007, not all donors disclose information about their gifts publicly and they are not required by law to do so.

Gifts that donors made from their family foundations were not counted, to avoid including donations twice — when the donor gave money to the foundation and when the donor selected a beneficiary for the money.

The Chronicle counted only those gifts that donors made to organizations classified as charities or foundations under Section 501(c)(3) of the International Revenue Code.

Donors are not allowed to claim charitable deductions on their income taxes for gifts to other types of tax-exempt groups, even if they were made to help others.

The Chronicle’s list does not include donations from anonymous donors, even though an increasing number of donors made large charitable contributions last year and asked their beneficiaries not to name them.

Payments on Pledges

The newspaper also does not count payments that donors made on pledges announced in previous years, in order to avoid counting the same gift twice. As a result, several donors who have been mainstays on previous years’ lists and made notably large donations in 2007 do not appear on the list because their gifts were payments on earlier pledges.

Among them was Warren E. Buffett, who gave 475,000 shares of Berkshire Hathaway class “B” stock worth slightly more than $1.7-billion in 2007 to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in Seattle.

The gift was the most recent payment on the approximately $36.1-billion pledge Mr. Buffet made to the Gates foundation in 2006, the largest charitable donation ever made.

He paid $1.6-billion toward the pledge in 2006, and has approximately $32.7-billion remaining to pay.

Mr. Buffett also made payments on additional pledges he announced in 2006.

He gave 47,500 shares of Berkshire stock worth $176.4-million to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, in Omaha, as payment on the approximately $3.6-billion pledge he made to the foundation in 2006.

The foundation was named for Mr. Buffett’s first wife, who was president of the foundation until her death in 2004. Mr. Buffett paid $151.3-million on the pledge in 2006, and has slightly more than $1.9-billion left to pay.

As payments he made on additional 2006 pledges of $1.3-billion apiece, Mr. Buffett gave 16,625 shares of the stock worth $61.7-million in 2007 to each of his three children’s foundations: the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, in Decatur, Ill.; the NoVo Foundation, Peter Buffett’s foundation, in New York; and the Sherwood Foundation (formerly called the Susan A. Buffett Foundation), his daughter’s foundation, in Omaha.

Mr. Buffett gave each of them $52.9-million in 2006 toward the pledges, and has nearly $1.2-billion left to pay toward each of the three foundations.

Others who made payments on earlier pledges include:

Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, who gave approximately $1.2-billion in 2007 to their foundation. The donation was the most recent payment toward the approximately $3.3-billion that Mr. and Ms. Gates pledged to the foundation in 2004. The couple paid $627-million of that pledge in 2004, $320-million in 2005, and $316-million in 2006. They have slightly more than $2-billion remaining to pay on the 2004 commitment.
Ted Turner gave $50-million in cash to the United Nations Foundation and the Better World Fund, both in Washington, in 2007. The gift was a payment toward a $1-billion pledge Mr. Turner made in 1997 to establish the foundation and the fund. To date, Mr. Turner has paid a total of $700-million toward the pledge.

Estate Gifts

Several big donors who died in 2007 were not included on the list because their estates have not been settled.

Among them was Leona M. Helmsley, head of the Helmsley hotel chain.

Ms. Helmsley died in August and left much of her estate — estimated to be worth between $4-billion and $8-billion — to a charitable trust. She created the trust in 1999, according to her will, but did not name any nonprofit organizations or specific causes as beneficiaries.

During her lifetime, Ms. Helmsley gave a total of $70-million to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, and $5-million to the American Red Cross, in Washington, to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Officials of Ms. Helmsley’s estate declined to say exactly how much money the trust will receive. The officials said, through a representative, that they expect to settle Ms. Helmsley’s estate later this year.

Also not on the list is Helen R. Walton, the widow of Sam M. Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart Stores.

Ms. Walton, whose net worth was $16.4-billion according to Forbes magazine, died in April.

Shortly after her death, her family said in a statement that “a significant portion of her shares in Wal-Mart will pass, over a period of years, to charity,” but did not specify which nonprofit organizations would receive Ms. Walton’s bequests, or how much of her estate she might have bequeathed to the Walton Family Foundation, in Bentonville, Ark.

Barbara Cox Anthony, an heiress to the Cox Enterprises fortune who died in May, and Brooke Astor, the New York socialite and philanthropist who died in August, are also not on the list.

Known to have given most of her donations anonymously, Ms. Anthony, who was part owner of Cox Enterprises, in Atlanta, also directed the Barbara Cox Anthony Foundation, in Honolulu.

Officials at her foundation and her estate declined to answer The Chronicle’s inquiries about whether Ms. Anthony had bequeathed any money to her foundation or any other charities.

Mrs. Astor, who was 105 when she died and gave away nearly $195-million to charitable causes over her lifetime, named the New York Public Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, as major beneficiaries in her will. But how much each nonprofit institution will get is not yet clear because her estate, valued at about $190-million, became ensnared in a high-profile legal battle.

Gifts of Art

Two significant art collections were pledged to museums last year, but their donors were not included on The Chronicle’s list because, in the case of works of art that have been pledged but not yet given outright, the value of the art is likely to change over time due to inflation and appreciation in the pieces’ value. In addition, the museums would not disclose the artworks’ exact dollar value, and another reliable, independent source to appraise the pieces could not be found.

Peter H. Lunder, a retired businessman, and his wife, Paula, pledged to give Colby College Museum of Art, in Waterville, Me., an extensive collection of art.

The collection of approximately 500 paintings and sculptures includes works by Mary Cassatt, Edward Hopper, Sol LeWitt, John Singer Sargent, and other prominent artists, plus 40 ancient Chinese sculptures, and 201 prints by James McNeill Whistler.

The Lunders also pledged to give the museum a gift of cash — in an amount neither they nor the museum would disclose — that will go toward the care and management of the collection. The pieces are currently estimated to be valued at more than $100-million, but the collection’s value could increase when the museum receives all of the works.

Another major pledge of art last year was a collection of 16 sculptures including works by Anthony Caro, Willem de Kooning, Ellsworth Kelly, and others that John Pappajohn, a Des Moines venture capitalist, and his wife, Mary, promised to give to the Des Moines Art Center.

The Lunders’ collection is currently valued at $20-million to $30-million.

A searchable database of information about the donors on the Philanthropy 50 is available online.

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The Chronicle’s list of the biggest donors of 2007 was compiled by Maria Di Mento. She was assisted by Candie Jones, Sam Kean, and Nicole Lewis.