Mark Zuckerberg's $25 million donation to fight Ebola made headlines everywhere this week, thanks to generous size of the gift, the headlines surrounding Ebola and the high profile of the Facebook CEO. But you might be surprised to learn that it's not even in the top 10 of healthcare donations to charitable institutions this year.
According to a database maintained by The Chronicle of Philantropy, it would have taken a donation of more than $30 million to make that list -- and more than $100 million to crack the top five. Here's a look at the five biggest donors this year, according to the publication's database:
1. $650 million to the Broad Institute, Cambridge MA, from the Stanley Family Foundation. The foundation is headed by Ted Stanley, the founder of consumer products/collectibles company MBI, Inc. The money is designated for research into psychiatric disorders, according to the Chronicle. Stanley also donated $175 million to the institute in 2007 to establish the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research. His interest in the subject is personal: The New York Times reports Stanley's son was successfully treated for bipolar disorder in the 1980s. Forbes looks at why the huge donation might be so important.
2. $125 million to Sanford Health in Sioux Falls, SD, from T. Denny Sanford, a South Dakota businessman and CEO of United National Corp. That's part of Sanford's ongoing generosity, which has helped transform the former Sioux Valley Health System into a major medical research institution. The Chronicle reports Sanford has donated more than $735 million to date to the healthcare institution that bears his name. Here's a look at Sanford from the Argus Leader of Sioux Falls.
3. $120 million to the Rady Children's Hospital Foundation in San Diego from Ernest Rady, the chairman of real estate development company American Assets. The money is targeted for the establishment of the Rady Pediatric Genomics and Systems Medicine Institute. It's not the first large donation to the hospital that bears Rady's name: He also gave the hospital $60 million in 2006, the Chronicle reports (a side note: Rady's family fortune, which dates back over generations, has a complex back story).
4. $100 million from Henry R. and Mari-Josee Kravis to the Memorial Sloan-Ketter Cancer Center in New York. The money will establish the Center for Molecular Oncology at the center, according to the Chronicle. Kravis is a founding partner of New York private equity firm Roberts & Co.; his wife is on the hopsital's board of overseers and managers. The Academy of Achievement profiles Kravis here.
4 (tie). $100 million to the University of California at San Francisco Benioff Children's Hospital from Marc R. and Lynn Benioff. The money will go to the children's hospital and an affiliated institution over the next five years, the Chronicle reports. Marc Benioff is the founder and CEO of salesforce.com -- and the Chronicle notes that the couple also donated $100 million to the same hospital in 2010. Here's a Marc Benioff profile in Forbes.