WhatsApp founder among young tech tycoons dominating philanthropy

Jan Koum, CEO and co-founder of WhatsApp, is a major donor. Last February, Facebook bought WhatsApp, a mobile messaging service, for $19 billion. Eight months later, the 38-year-old Ukrainian immigrant gave $556 million to the Silicon Valley Community Fund in 2014. less Jan Koum, CEO and co-founder of WhatsApp, is a major donor. Last February, Facebook bought WhatsApp, a mobile messaging service, for $19 billion. Eight months later, the 38-year-old Ukrainian immigrant gave ... more Photo: MARC MÜLLER / AFP/Getty Images Photo: MARC MÜLLER / AFP/Getty Images Image 1 of / 12 Caption Close WhatsApp founder among young tech tycoons dominating philanthropy 1 / 12 Back to Gallery

WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum embodies the ethos of how the new generation of tech entrepreneurs is reshaping philanthropy: Give early and give large.

Last February, Facebook bought WhatsApp, a mobile messaging service, for $19 billion. Eight months later, the 38-year-old Ukrainian immigrant gave $556 million to the Silicon Valley Community Fund.

Donors like Koum, from the tech world, particularly from Silicon Valley, have an outsize presence on the list of the top 50 U.S. philanthropic givers of 2014 released Sunday by the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Tycoons on the list gave a combined $9.8 billion — up from $7.7 billion in 2013. Tech donors gave 47 percent of the year’s total.

The increase is another sign that the economy is improving, according to the list makers. It’s also an outgrowth of the booming tech industry, which is powering the economy.

Of the top 50 donors, 12 were couples or individuals from the tech world — and six of those were 50 and under and from the valley. These younger tech donors gave $2.5 billion — roughly 25 percent of the list’s total.

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The younger set may have given more than their share, but big-time philanthropy remains an older person’s game. The median age on the list: 73.

“This younger generation is putting their money toward philanthropy now, compared with the older generation like Bill Gates and Paul Allen, who did it later in their careers,” said Maria DiMento, who compiled the list for the Chronicle of Philanthropy. “The question is now, where are they going to direct it.”

The new school of givers includes early Facebook investor Sean Parker, 35, who gave $550 million; GoPro camera founder Nicholas Woodman, 39, and wife Jill, who gave $500 million; Google co-founders Sergey Brin, 41, and Larry Page, 41, who gave $382 million and $177 million, respectively; eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, 47, and wife Pam, who gave $180 million; and Salesforce.com founder Marc Benioff, 50, and wife Lynne, who gave $154 million.

Gates was the year’s top donor, giving $1.5 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported that 60 percent of the money on the list went into private or community foundations. Some of that money came from young donors like Koum, who came into wealth after selling their companies and placed some of the bounty in donor-advised funds.

There’s no legal requirement that money in a donor-advised fund ever be spent. Donors get an immediate, one-time tax break by depositing their money or assets in the fund, and they can advise the institution holding their money where and when to spend it.

Private foundations are required to disburse 5 percent of their assets annually, but there’s no law requiring Koum to ever move the money from the community foundation to a charitable organization. No law requires his heirs to do so, either. And community foundations aren’t required to disclose how much money from an individual account has been dispersed.

“I don’t think this generation will be like that and just let that money sit there for 10 years doing nothing,” DiMento said. “Look at the way they do business. They want to do things quickly. They’re not inclined to sit back and wait for change.

“Plus, there’s a lot of pressure on them — because they made so much money so early in their lives — to give,” DiMento said. “Look at what Mark Zuckerberg is doing.”

On Friday, The Chronicle reported that Facebook founder Zuckerberg, who is worth $33.3 billion, and his wife, Priscilla Chan, donated $75 million to San Francisco General Hospital. It will be renamed the Priscilla and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center. Last year, the couple donated $25 million to the Centers for Disease Control Foundation to help fight the Ebola virus.

While some say that Zuckerberg and Chan’s donations may inspire other tech entrepreneurs to do the same, “There is also trickle-up pressure” on wealthy tech leaders from the heads of smaller startups, who are also giving in greater numbers, said Silicon Valley entrepreneur and venture capitalist Josh Becker.

Becker founded Full Circle Fund, a philanthropic organization that has given grants to nonprofits for 14 years. Most of the donations to the fund come in $5,000 and $10,000 increments.

“It’s great for all these people to give money because it creates an expectation that that’s what should be done,” Becker said. “And the more that people do it, they’ll see that it’s OK. Wall Street isn’t going to yell at them. Their board isn’t going to say, 'You’re spending too much time on this.’”

Joe Garofoli is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com