New Ventures in Philanthropy Announces Grants to Broaden Giving in U.S.
Slate, the online journal edited by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, has released the most recent installment of the Slate 60, its ranking of the largest charitable gifts made by individual donors in the year just passed.
Topping the list are Bill and Melinda Gates, whose $5 billion gift in 2000 to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation made it the world's largest private foundation, with some $21 billion in assets. Following the Gateses on the list are California philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad, who donated a total of $137.5 million to education and the arts in 2000. Huntsman Corp. founder Jon M. Huntsman's $125 million gift to the University of Utah for cancer research earned him the third spot. Huntsman was followed by Dora Donner Ide, who made the list posthumously thanks to her $111 million bequest to a variety of nonprofit groups in the San Francisco Bay area. Rounding out the top five were former Netscape CEO James L. and his wife Sally, whose $100 million gift to the University of Mississippi will be used to raise literacy levels in the state. (For the complete list, visit: http://slate.msn.com/Slate60/01-01-22/Slate60.asp)
While the huge gift from the Gateses pushed total donations by members of the list to a record high, there was an indication that a slowdown in giving may be in the offing: in 1999, a donor needed to have given at least $15 million to make it onto the list, compared to the $13.2 million (to the Greater Cincinnati Foundation) that put Richard and Lucille Durrell on the list in 2000.
The 2000 installment of the list was compiled by Laura Hruby and the Chronicle of Philanthropy, following the death last year of Ann Castle, the list's original researcher. The Chronicle and Slate plan to issue the list on an annual basis.
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