How the Chronicle Compiled Its List of the Top 50 Donors

The 26th annual Philanthropy 50, theChronicle’s list of America’s biggest donors, is based on gifts and pledges of cash and stock to nonprofits in 2025.

The Chronicle talked to dozens of charities, philanthropists, and their representatives to find out more about large contributions that were made publicly last year, as well as the philanthropy of big donors who gave quietly. However, not all philanthropists publicly disclose details about their giving, and they are not legally required to do so.

Gifts made to donors’ family foundations and donor-advised funds were counted; however, disbursements from those grant-making vehicles were not included in our rankings to avoid double-counting.

The Chronicle counts only gifts and pledges that donors make to organizations with charity or foundation status under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Missing Donors

MacKenzie Scott is among the notable absences on the Philanthropy 50 list. While it is possible she made gifts to her donor-advised funds that would have earned her a spot on the Philanthropy 50, she and her representatives declined to provide such information to the Chronicle. Scott awarded grants totaling about $7 billion to at least 120 charities last year through her Yield Giving fund, but she continues to decline to provide details about how much money she is funneling into the grant maker.

2026 Philanthropy 50

America’s biggest donors gave $22.4 billion in 2025. This year’s report highlights some of the country’s most interesting and prolific philanthropists.

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Several other philanthropists who gave some of the biggest donations last year did not make it on to the Philanthropy 50 list because they gave through their foundations. Among them were Michael Moritz, a partner at Sequoia Capital, and his wife, Harriet Heyman. The couple gave roughly $202.9 million through their Crankstart Foundation to the American Friends of the National Gallery London to help pay for a new wing to house 20th-century paintings.

Also not on the list is Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts and his wife, Aileen, who gave Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia $125 million through their Aileen K. and Brian L. Roberts Foundation to support the construction of a new patient tower that will house spaces for families facing extended stays while their children undergo treatment. Retired Walmart chairman Rob Walton, who gave $115 million through his Rob Walton Foundation, to Arizona State University to launch its School of Conservation Futures, which aims to boost work force development in conservation science, is also not listed.

Multiyear Gifts

Some of America’s biggest donors don’t appear on the current Philanthropy 50 even if they gave large sums last year. That’s because the Chronicle’s rankings count multiyear pledges only once, as a lump sum in the year the commitment was made.

Warren Buffett claimed the No. 4 spot on this year’s Philanthropy 50 for money he put into his family foundation and the foundations of his three children in November, but several large sums he gave to those same foundations in late June, as well as to the Gates Foundation, are not counted. That is because Buffett’s June gifts were annual installments toward multibillion-dollar pledges he announced 20 years ago that were already counted on the 2006 Philanthropy 50.

Here’s how much Buffett gave to those foundations in June as payments toward his 2006 pledges, which he has now exceeded:

• More than 9 million shares of class “B” Berkshire Hathaway stock valued at nearly $4.6 billion to the Gates Foundation. To date, he has contributed $47.9 billion. That is $11.8 billion more than the roughly $36.1 billion he pledged to the grant maker in 2006.

• More than 943,000 shares valued at nearly $458.3 million to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation — his family foundation that is named for his first wife, who died in 2004. He has contributed $4.5 billion, or about $900 million more than the approximately $3.6 billion he originally pledged to the fund.

• More than 660,000 shares (valued at $320.8 million) apiece to the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, which funds agriculture, clean-water, and anti-poverty programs; the NoVo Foundation, co-founded by Peter Buffett and his wife, Jennifer, which promotes alternative ways of living, such as local agriculture, food co-ops, and worker-owned businesses; and daughter Susan Buffett’s Sherwood Foundation, which supports social-justice work and early-childhood education.

• In 2006, Warren Buffett promised Berkshire stock then valued at nearly $1.3 billion to each of his three children’s foundations and then doubled the original pledge in 2012. To date, he has given the three foundations $2.9 billion each toward the pledge.