FB founder and wife biggest donors in 2013

Nearly $1 billion given to Silicon Valley Community Foundation

Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan were the largest philanthropic donors in the United Stats in 2013, donating nearly 1 billion dollars to charity, according to the annual list published by the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

The tech billionaire, 29, whose net worth is estimated at almost 20 billion dollars, donated 992 million dollars to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which provides grants to several non-profit organisations in the tech region. Second on the list was fracking pioneer George Mitchell. He died in July and left 750 million dollars to the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation, which provides grants for clean energy, natural gas sustainability and other environmental projects. One of the foundation’s main goals is to prevent environmental damage from the technology that Mitchell created, the Chronicle stated.

The other top donations came from Nike founder Phil Knight, who gave 500 million dollars to the Oregon Health and Science Universtiy Foundation, and from former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, who donated 452 million dollars to a variety of arts, health and ecological organisations.

Gifts from the 50 top living donors in 2013 equalled their combined contributions from the previous two years. When bequests were taken into account the total donations of America’s greatest philanthropists rose 4 per cent from the previous year.