February 2020

The top 5 donors in 2019 gave over $1 billion each, and many wealthy Americans gave to fight climate change and inequality.

John Hollingworth left 45 percent of his estate to charities in Greenville, S.C., and that has developed a robust set of nonprofits and a model for how grant makers can best help organizations with advice, unrestricted aid, and more.

Five donors contributed $1 billion or more, the first time in 20 years that so many people have given that much.

Only 21 people on the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans appear among this year’s Philanthropy 50 list.

Find out more about America’s 50 biggest donors: their ages, sources of wealth, where they live, and where they give. And see the entire Philanthropy 50 report featuring our analysis of the list and giving trends among megadonors.

Inside the methodology for tallying which philanthropists gave away the most money in 2018.

Frank Randall, a real-estate developer, and his wife, Joan, decided to give big to Banning Ranch Conservancy after the head of the all-volunteer group provided clear details about what the money would go.

Jay Faison, a technology entrepreneur, put money into filling a void on the right, and his philanthropy is starting to gain traction in promoting clean-energy approaches.

Cordelia Scaife May left $404 million that goes to nonprofits like the Federation for American Immigration Reform and NumbersUSA, which have had a significant influence on policies to limit the number of people who are allowed to claim legal residency in the United States.

Ted and Vada Stanley appeared on the Philanthropy 50 multiple times, but it is their $650 million donation in 2014 that is changing how scientists understand the genetics of mental illness and encouraging other donors to give to the cause.

Data from the Philanthropy 50, the Chronicle’s annual list of the people who give the most to charity, reveals lists of boldface names in the world of giving.

Smith hopes his commitment will inspire a wave of giving — and he’s created a blueprint other donors can use to make similar gifts.

To mark the 20th anniversary of the Philanthropy 50 annual rankings of the donors who give the most, the Chronicle looked at how large donations from past lists have worked out.

Grant makers’ success advocating for change is more than 20 years in the making, gaining momentum from early wins by advocates, new research, and falling crime rates.

A disparate group of top grant makers have been attacking the issue from all angles. Their efforts have created a sea change in the politics and rhetoric of incarceration — and have the potential to be a landmark success story

A third of those donors say they could be persuaded to contribute more, according to the Burk Donor Survey.

ProjectArt offers free after-school classes for kids living in historically underserved neighborhoods across the United States.

Roughly a third of people in a survey of more than 18,500 donors said that specifying in detail how a gift will be used would lead to greater giving.

In other news about people in philanthropy, the Southern Poverty Law Center taps an Amnesty International executive as it head, and the Packard Foundation appoints a new CEO.

Over more than 20 years, Helen Huang has watched the issue move from the fringe to the mainstream, gathering support from conservative as well as liberal donors. She now leads the Ford Foundation’s Art for Justice Fund.

The nonprofit that raises money for Hebrew University of Jerusalem hopes the video campaign will draw new supporters age 50 and younger.

Three grant makers share proven tactics for adding trustees from different age groups as well as economic, racial, and ethnic backgrounds.

Giving engineers, data scientists, and others access to data, tools, and peers working to change the world will help us compete with business and government.

At time when the United States is so polarized, more citizens should give and volunteer to efforts that help tell America’s story.