Some of the nation’s wealthiest individuals increased their donations to charities last year, led by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s gift of nearly $1 billion in company stock to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

Zuckerberg and his wife, pediatrician Priscilla Chan, ranked first among the nation’s biggest donors in 2013, according to a report Monday by The Chronicle of Philanthropy, which tracks charitable giving trends.

Five other tech industry figures, including Google’s Sergey Brin and Oracle’s Larry Ellison, made the Chronicle’s list of the 50 biggest individual donors to charity last year. All told, the 50 donors gave $7.7 billion, or 4 percent more than in 2012.

After subtracting bequests from individuals who died, the Chronicle counted $6.2 billion in giving by living donors — more than twice the amount given by living donors in 2012. Those donations are considered a better indication of current trends in charitable giving, since bequests after death are often planned years in advance.

A resurgent stock market and broader recovery helped fuel that increase, according to Chronicle editor Stacy Palmer. And while the nation’s biggest donors have traditionally made their money in finance or real estate, Palmer said it’s significant that six of the top 50 came from the tech world.

“I expect we’ll see more of that in coming years,” she said, adding that Zuckerberg is setting an example by giving while still young.

Zuckerberg and his wife, both 29, led the way in 2013 by transferring 18 million shares of Facebook stock, worth about $990 million, to a charitable fund administered by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. The Mountain View-based foundation, which operates similar funds for a number of wealthy individuals, typically allocates the money according to the donor’s instructions or helps find recipients working on issues that are important to the donor.

It was the second such gift from Zuckerberg and Chan. They also transferred 18 million Facebook shares to the foundation in 2012. At the time, that first gift was valued at $500 million, but its value has almost doubled as Facebook’s share price has soared over the last year.

Foundation officials, citing donor privacy, have declined to say exactly how the money will be used, although Zuckerberg and Chan have said they want to focus on education and health. In a recent donation, the foundation channeled $5 million from the couple to the Ravenswood Family Health Center, which serves low-income families in East Palo Alto and neighboring cities.

Among other Bay Area residents on the list, San Mateo financier Charles Johnson ranked No. 6 after pledging $250 million to his alma mater, Yale University. Johnson ran the parent company of Franklin Templeton Investments and is also a majority investor in the San Francisco Giants.

Google cofounder Sergey Brin and his wife, Anne Wojcicki, the CEO of genetic testing company 23andMe, ranked ninth. The pair announced last year that they are living apart, but together they gave $219 million to their own foundation, which supports human rights and anti-poverty programs, and the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.

John Arrillaga, who cofounded the giant real estate development firm Peery Arrillaga, was No. 16 on the list after donating $151 million to Stanford, which he attended. He also gave $100 million to Stanford in 2006.

Oracle cofounder and CEO Larry Ellison came in at No. 26 for donating $72 million in stock and real estate to his own Lawrence Ellison Foundation. Ellison has expanded the foundation’s focus from medical research to include education, health and wildlife conservation. His gift included a property in Saratoga, valued at $5.5 million, that will house a new center for aiding injured wildlife.

Also from the Bay Area is Netscape and Silicon Graphics cofounder James Clark, who ranked No. 36 after pledging $60 million for biomedical engineering research at Stanford.

Other tech figures include eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife; the Honolulu couple gave $225 million to several charities including HopeLab, a Redwood City nonprofit that helps critically ill children. Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen ranked No. 11 after giving $206 million to his own family foundation and a Seattle museum.

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