The Philanthropy 50: Who Gives the Most to Charity

The Chronicle’s 20th annual ranking of America’s biggest donors was topped by Michael Bloomberg and followed by the hotel magnate Barron Hilton, then Eric Schmidt, the former Google CEO, and his wife, Wendy. The top five on the list each gave more than $1 billion to charity last year. Philanthropy 50 donors gave away more than $15.8 billion in 2019. To mark our two decades of publishing, we also look back at the difference some of the biggest gifts of recent years have made on nonprofits and society.