Bequests Top 'Slate 60' List of Biggest Gifts of 2008
Seven of the ten biggest charitable gifts in 2008 were from estates — a sign that even the richest Americans may be putting off large donations due to economic uncertainty, the Chronicle of Philanthropy and Slate magazine report. By contrast, all ten of the top donors in 2007 were alive when they made their gifts.
According to the annual Slate 60 list, which first appeared in Slate in 1996 and has been compiled since 2000 by the Chronicle, the largest gifts of the year were made by the late Leona Helmsley, who left an estimated $5.2 billion to a charitable trust, and medical inventor James Sorenson, who bequeathed an estimated $4.5 billion to the Sorenson Legacy Foundation. Other major gifts came from Peter G. Peterson and Joan Ganz Cooney ($1 billion), Harold Alfond ($360 million), and Donald B. and Dorothy L. Stabler ($334 million).
A number of donors who made the list on multiple occasions in recent years did not qualify for the 2008 list. They include Pierre and Pam Omidyar, T. Boone Pickens, T. Denny Sanford, and Oprah Winfrey, all of whom were recognized in each of the previous three years but did not make new gifts or donate enough to be included in this year's list.
At the same time, a quarter of the top donors in 2008 came from the financial sector — more than from any other industry. Given the markets' troubles in 2008, this could mean fewer nine-figure gifts in 2009, said Chronicle editor Stacy Palmer.
"Some of the country's richest philanthropists say the bleak economy is causing them to put off making new gifts, and fundraisers already are noticing a dip in eight- and nine-figure donations," said Palmer. "What's different about this recession as compared to the last few is that it is affecting charitable donations of all kinds, not just those by the poor and middle class."
