Philanthropy Takes A Dive

“The 2002 Slate 60, the annual list of charitable gifts and pledges from the country’s top philanthropists, totaled $4.6 billion, less than half of 2001’s total of $12.7 billion.” The good news is that two of the biggest gifts last year in America were art-related. Walter Annenberg’s bequest of $1 billion worth of art to the Metropolitan Museum led. And “Ruth Lilly, heiress to the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical fortune, came in at No. 2 with a $520 million pledge to various arts organizations, including a $100 million gift to Poetry magazine.”