Charity megabucks: Many of 2008’s top donors gave posthumously

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In the year the economy went to the dogs, it perhaps is only fitting that Leona Helmsley emerges, from beyond the grave, as America’s top philanthropist of 2008, according to the annual survey by the Chronicle of Philanthropy and the online magazine Slate.

You’ll recall that at her death in 2007, the hotel heiress left a $12-million trust to provide for her beloved Maltese, Trouble. A judge later whittled that to $2 million. Now the other paw has dropped: Helmsley also bequeathed an estimated $5.2 billion to the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.

A Chonicle spokeswoman said that although Helmsley expressed a wish that the foundation devote everything to canine welfare, she ‘left some room’ for other causes.

The Helmsley Charitable Trust’s recent IRS filings show that its giving during the two fiscal years ending last March 31 totaled $15 million to help establish a center for treating digestive diseases at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. The trust’s net assets totaled $23.5 million.

Overall, the deceased gave more than the living in 2008. Of the top 10 donors on the Chronicle/Slate list, seven gave posthumously, via bequests. In all, they provided for the grateful living to the tune of $11.1 billion. Last year, the top 10 donors all were still among us. The list’s compilers say in a news release that they take this as ‘a sign that even the richest Americans may be putting off large donations due to economic uncertainty.’

Among Angelenos known for arts largess, Eli and Edythe Broad gave $100 million to their Broad Foundations, which support education and scientific and medical research as well as art. That extended to nine straight years in which the Brentwood couple have given at least $100 million, and placed them in a tie for 17th on the 2008 list. Coming in at No. 31 were Lynda and Stewart Resnick of Beverly Hills, who according to the list’s compilers laid $55.3 million on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion now under construction. Tops among L.A. givers was former EBay President Jeffrey Skoll, who placed 15th by giving $110.8 million to his Skoll Foundation, which funds entrepreneurial solutions to social problems.

-- Mike Boehm

redit: Jennifer Graylock / Associated Press