The biggest philanthropists in the U.S. donated a combined $5.6 billion to nonprofit organizations in 2016, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported recently.
Donations by the wealthy cohort who populated The Chronicle's annual Philanthropy 50 list were down from $7 billion in 2015 and $10.2 billion the year before.
The report said several factors accounted for the drop in giving:
- A relative lack of big bequests, which tend to drive up the total
- A volatile stock market in 2016, which surged only toward year-end
- The White House race, which may have diverted some donors' attention
Tech giants claimed four of the first nine spots on this year's ranking. All told, the nine who made the list gave away some $1.2 billion, more than 20% of the total for the Philanthropy 50.
Sixteen donors on the list build their fortunes in finance; they gave slightly less than $1 billion.
The bulk of donations from the Philanthropy 50 last year — nearly half — went to colleges and universities, the report said, noting that these institutions could come under scrutiny on Capitol Hill this year as Congress considers tax changes.
Museums netted $293 million in Philanthropy 50 gifts, the most since at least 2012. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art received two Philanthropy 50 gifts worth a combined $75 million, and New York's Museum of Modern Art received a $100 million gift.
Philanthropy 50 donors contributed at least $328 million to donor-advised funds last year, more than double the $157 million total from 2015.
The report noted that only one of President Donald Trump's cabinet nominees, many of whom are wealthy, has ever appeared on the Philanthropy 50.
Betsy DeVos, confirmed Tuesday as education secretary in a tiebreaking vote by the vice president, appeared on the list in 2006 along with her husband and his siblings, who together gave $50 million to Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The Chronicle based its annual ranking of America's most generous donors primarily on gifts and pledges of cash, land and stock to organizations with charity or foundation status under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code. It counted gifts donors made to their family foundations, though not disbursements from those foundations to avoid double-counting.
The Chronicle said some of the country's biggest donors do not appear on the current list even though they may have given large gifts to charity last year because the rankings count multiyear pledges only once, as a single lump sum in the year the commitment was made.
For example, Warren Buffett is absent from the 2016 list even though he gave the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation stock in his Berkshire Hathaway investment firm valued at upward of $2 billion, an annual installment on his 2006 pledge of more than $30 billion in Berkshire shares to the foundation.
Check out 20 Most Generous U.S. Donors: 2016 on ThinkAdvisor.
Following are the 10 biggest donors of the year, according to The Chronicle:
10. Kenyon Gillespie
Total giving: $108 million (bequest)
Location: Seatauket, New York
Wealth source: Family wealth; investments
Top cause: Medical care
Biggest gift: Stamford Hospital Foundation — $54 million 
9. Bill and Melinda Gates
Total giving: $141.4 million
Location: Medina, Washington
Wealth source: Technology
Top cause: Various
Biggest gift: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
8. Pierre and Pam Omidyar
Total giving: $173 million
Location: Honolulu
Wealth source: Technology
Top cause: Various
Biggest gifts: Omidyar Network, Humanity United, Democracy Fund, HopeLab
7. Charles Munger
Total giving: $200 million
Location: Santa Barbara, California
Wealth source: Investments
Top cause: Student housing
Biggest gift: University of California at Santa Barbara
