Northwest mega-donors were a little stingy last year

Slate.com is out with its annual list of the top 60 American philanthropists, and there's a surprise for the mega-wealthy Northwest. Only one person from the region makes the list, Phil Knight, the Nike CEO, who comes in 16th of the top 60 for his $100 million gift to the University of Oregon. That's it. No Bill Gates this year, though he's often led the list. Nor does any Washington institution figure as recipient of a large gift. University of Oregon receives a major gift from Lorry Lokey (15th on the Slate list), founder of Business Wire, who gave $74.5 million for science teaching. Hotelier Leona Helmsley, noted for her lavish gift to her dog, tops the list with a $4 billion donation from her estate to her charitable trust. Barron Hilton, another hotelier, comes in second, followed by Jon and Karen Huntsman, George Soros, and credit card mogul T. Danny Sanford. Other famous names on the list are Michael Bloomberg (8th), Eli Broad (12th), Jerry Yang of Yahoo (28th), and Oprah Winfrey (43rd). The Slate rankings began in 1996, when the top gift, by the Skaggs family, was $105 million. This year it took a gift of $30 million to make it onto the list. Here's an overview of the trends and methodology of the Slate project. Taking a multi-year view, from 2002-05, the Northwest does somewhat better, according to BusinessWeek's 50 Most Generous Philanthropists. Warren Buffett leads this list, with Bill Gates second ($3.4 billion over the four years) and Paul Allen 27th ($287 million).