October 30, 2008 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Are the 50 wealthiest Americans giving enough money, relative to their wealth, to charity? That’s the question the editors of Condé Nast Portfolio magazine attempt to answer in the magazine’s “Generosity Index” (November).
To compile its rankings, Portfolio relied on several sources of information, including The Chronicle’s database of gifts of $1-million or more.
Warren E. Buffett tops Portfolio’s index for giving a total of $46.1-billion since 2002. Most of those donations are from commitments Mr. Buffett made in 2006, when he ranked No. 1 on The Chronicle’s annual listing of the most generous donors.
Mr. Buffett made a pledge of approximately $36.1-billion that year to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a $3.6-billion pledge to his late wife’s foundation, and additional billion-dollar pledges to each of his three children’s foundations.
Portfolio pegs Mr. Buffett’s wealth at $52-billion, and he was ranked No. 2 on Forbes magazine’s annual list of the 400 wealthiest Americans, preceded by Bill Gates, with a net worth of $57-billion.
Trailing Mr. Buffett on Portfolio’s index, Mr. Gates comes in at No. 2 for giving more than $3.7-billion over the last five years.
He is followed by George Soros, who the magazine says has given $1.6-billion and is worth $9-billion. Eli Broad lands the No. 4 spot for giving more than $1.8-billion since 2002. The magazine pinpoints Mr. Broad’s wealth at $7-billion.
The magazine also takes a stab at outing the anonymous donors of several recent multimillion-dollar gifts.
Portfolio reports that the $150-million given to the University of California at San Francisco in 2007 was from Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, and that a $100-million donation given to the Erie Community Foundation, in Pennsylvania, was from the H.O. Hirt family, whose patriarch founded the Erie Indemnity Company.
The magazine also includes numerous other articles on philanthropy, including:
- A profile of the billionaire David H. Koch, who made his fortune through Koch Industries, in Wichita, Kan. He has given $291-million over the last five years and has become one of New York’s most notable philanthropists.
- An in-depth look at the $100-million donation that Goldman Sachs, the financial giant, made last year to a program to provide education and other aid to women in developing countries.
- Why the decision to reject a $100-million pledge caused problems for the Montgomery Bell Academy, a Nashville private school.
The articles are available online.
