Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Bill and Melinda Gates are the top American philanthropists.
- The Chronicle of Philanthropy publishes an annual list of the top 50 philanthropists (both individuals and couples) by calculating their yearly donations.
- In 2017, America's wealthiest residents donated $14.7 billion to nonprofit organizations.
- About 60% of the total was donated by people who made their fortunes in tech, suggesting America's philanthropic center is shifting away from Wall Street and towards Silicon Valley, according to The Chronicle.
America's wealthiest people donated $14.7 billion in 2017 to causes, alma maters, foundations, and charities - more than doubling the amount given away in 2016, reported Forbes.
For 18 years, The Chronicle of Philanthropy has published an annual round up of the top-50 philanthropists in America by calculating their yearly donations. In 2017, the individuals and couples on the list donated a median of $97 million, doubling the giving amount from the first list published in 2000. The total donation amount of the 2017 list is the highest amount since the 2008 recession, according to Forbes.
The 2017 list features 11 individuals or couples from the technology industry accounting for $8.7 billion in donations, or about 60% of the total, suggesting America's philanthropic center is shifting away from Wall Street and towards Silicon Valley, according to The Chronicle.
The top three donors who gave away at least $1 billion each are tech moguls: Michael and Susan Dell, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, and Bill and Melinda Gates.
Notably missing from the list is billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who made a multibillion-dollar donation in Berkshire Hathaway stock to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2017. But because the "annual installment" was part of Buffett's initial 2006 pledge to donate more than $36 billion in Berkshire Hathaway shares to the Gates' organization, the Chronicle did not count it as a 2017 donation.
Below are the top 25 philanthropists who donated more than $97 million each in 2017. Note that four people passed away after the ranking was first published in February - Porter Byrum, David Rockefeller, Florence Irving, and Henry Hillman.