The charitable donations made through gifts of $1 million and up more than tripled in 2015, according to the Coutts Million Dollar Donors Report.
The drastic increase was due mostly to a $32 billion donation from a Saudi prince, but even discounting that one huge gift, donations of $1 million and more increased by 41 percent, says Coutts, a wealth management and banking firm in the United Kingdom.
In 2015, there were 2,197 donations of $1 million or more totaling $56 billion in the United States, the United Kingdom, Continental Europe and the Middle East. This compares to $17 billion donated in 2014 in the same regions.
Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, one of the world’s richest people, announced in 2015 he was giving $32 billion to a variety of charities in conjunction with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carter Center and Weill Cornell Medical College.
Individuals gave 85 percent of the total and the remainder came from foundations and corporations. Foundations received the largest portion of the donations. Universities and colleges were popular recipients, receiving 1,047 of the donations.
The number of recipients in the United States grew from 724 in 2014 to 1,189 last year, according to the report, while in the United Kingdom 267 organizations received gifts compared to 243 the year before.
“This is a positive sign of the breadth and variety of charitable activity that is benefiting from major philanthropy,” says the report.
