(FORTUNE Magazine) – As philanthropist Ross Perot might say, here's the problem: Making money is fun, sexy--a great outlet for aggression. But giving it away? What's the challenge there? Any idiot with an Ivy League degree and monogrammed shirt cuffs can manage to do that.

Many a self-made man, or woman, feels this way. Little wonder, then, that persons supremely great at getting aren't always the ones good at giving. The poorest of the poor, after all, give a higher portion of their income than the richest of the rich.

Maybe if giving were more competitive they'd like it better: Rich Guy X could vie with Rich Guy Y to see who could outphilanthropize whom. Last August, Rich Guy T--Ted Turner, vice chairman of Time Warner (the parent of FORTUNE's publisher)--proposed this idea to New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. Somebody, Ted said, should make a list ranking rich people by their generosity. We think he's onto something, and we present our ranking.

Ours is not the first, nor probably will it be the last, such list. But it is, we believe, the most rigorous and comprehensive by far. The dollar amounts reflect each donor's total new giving commitments for 1996. To get them, we interviewed hundreds of the wealthiest Americans. We gathered information regionally from community foundations and local sources, and we examined hundreds of financial filings. We tallied all gifts, regardless of size, publicized or not. Both direct giving by individuals and giving by individuals' personal foundations are included. (We don't report giving by corporate foundations or foundations whose founders are deceased.)

Many billionaires whose names you might expect to find below aren't listed, some because their giving (in relation to their wealth) is stingy. Donald Newhouse and brother Si, for example, each give away less than $5 million a year, on average. Their combined worth? Upwards of $10 billion. Other donors, generous in past years, chose to sit out 1996. Former CBS chairman Laurence Tisch previously helped endow a school of arts and a medical center at New York University. Last year he made no comparable gift.

Still others of the rich--among them Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett--have said they will postpone their biggest gifts until after they die. Author Waldemar Nielsen (Inside American Philanthropy: The Dramas of Donorship) notes business barons have often found it tough to cede control of fortunes "until the guy with the scythe is standing right beside them."

What traits do the most generous givers share?

--Most are self-made. Included are an author, an athletic-shoe salesman, a retired grocery store magnate, a cruise line founder, a glassmaker, and a chemicals dealer. Only four inherited fortunes: Robert Bass, whose father seized the reins on a notable inheritance from his own uncle, Sid Richardson; widows Joan Kroc and Betty Brown Casey, who control the estates of their late husbands; and L.S. Skaggs, whose fortune came from his dad's grocery and drug empire. The remainder made fortunes in finance, banking, technology, insurance, real estate, and media.

--They're religious: Jewish, Mormon, Protestant, and Catholic. And most attribute their philanthropic urges, at least in part, to their religious backgrounds. Ted Arison claims he gives because it's part of the Jewish tradition, a tradition that requires each person each year to set aside 10% of his income for charity. Jay Pritzker says that although he's not religious, his Jewish heritage instilled in him a strong sense of community obligation. Jon Huntsman gives an annual tithe to the Mormon church.

--They've been busy giving all their lives. Huntsman's generosity extends back to his service in the navy, when he subsidized a needy family every month with $50 from his $350 paycheck.

--Their incentive goes deeper than tax deductions. Why does George Soros give more than a third of a billion dollars away in one year? Born in Budapest in 1930, he felt the oppression of a closed society at a very young age. He immigrated to England in 1947, and then to the U.S. in 1956. In 1979, Soros established his first foundation, the Open Society Fund. Now he runs more than 50 foundation offices around the world that fund education, civil reform, medicine, health, child welfare, and the arts. No wonder he looks bushed (above). Most of the faces on the next two pages, however, beam. God evidently loves a cheerful giver.

1 George Soros 66, president of Soros Fund Management $350 million Soros, the biggest giver of all, focuses on building open societies. Recently he gave $50 million to the Emma Lazarus Fund to aid legal immigrants and $100 million to set up university Internet centers in provincial Russia.

2 L.S. Skaggs 73, retired chairman of American Stores $155 million Skaggs gave $100 million to endow the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology. He also pledged $50 million in land and cash for a new Roman Catholic school in Salt Lake City, and gave $5 million to the University of Utah.

3 Bill Gates 41, chairman of Microsoft $135 million Gates poured $100 million into his foundation. He gave $15 million to Harvard and $19 million to the University of Washington law school. Among his other beneficiaries: the Seattle Symphony, cancer research, and a Seattle children's hospital.

4 Walter Annenberg 88, former chairman of Triangle Publications $128 million Perhaps his most monumental project to date, the Annenberg Challenge will pump half a billion dollars into public school systems between 1995 and 2000. Areas of focus include Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and Philadelphia.

5 William Hewlett 83, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard $100 million The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation gave approximately $50 million in 1996. Hewlett personally gave much more, including $50 million to the Public Policy Institute, a think tank he founded in 1994.

6 Leslie Gonda 77, chairman of International Lease Finance Corp. $73 million UCLA received the largest gift in its history, $45 million, from Leslie Gonda this year. Gonda also paid for a senior citizens' building in Tel Aviv, supported the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, and funded the settlement of Ethiopians in Israel.

7 Jay A. and Robert A. Pritzker 70, 74; Hyatt Corp., Marmon Group $70 million The Pritzkers gave $60 million to the Illinois Institute of Technology. They support over 250 organizations, including AIDS Walk, the Boy Scouts, and the Chicago Art Institute. The family is best known for the Pritzker Prize in architecture.

8 Ted Arison 72, retired founder of Carnival Cruise Lines $60 million Ted Arison and his wife, Lin, gave the New World Symphony in Miami 1.3 million shares of Carnival stock, worth about $40 million. Other recipients are the Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv and Miami's Partnership for the Homeless.

9 Robert Galvin 74, retired chairman of Motorola $60 million Galvin, along with the Pritzkers, gave $60 million to the Illinois Institute of Technology. IIT plans to raise another $120 million to match the Pritzker/Galvin gift. Galvin, cantankerous, says he gives to others as well--but won't say which.

10 William Davidson 74, chairman of Guardian Industries $35 million In December, Davidson announced he will give $30 million to the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology for the creation of a business school. His other beneficiaries include the Jewish Theological Seminary and an archaeological park.

11 Joan Kroc 68, widow of McDonald's former chairman $33 million She donated some $10 million in McDonald's stock plus $23 million in cash. Among her causes: the Betty Ford Center, St. Vincent de Paul Homeless Center, San Diego Hospice, and Ronald McDonald's Children's Charities.

12 Robert Bass 48, president of Keystone $30 million Bass made a $20 million gift to Yale and a $10 million gift to Duke. He also has supported the National Historic Trust in Washington, D.C. Brother Edward Bass is behind the creation of a new hall for the Fort Worth symphony.

13 Michael Bloomberg 54, founder of Bloomberg LP $30 million Bloomberg gave close to $25 million to Johns Hopkins University. He also supported New York City's Central Park Conservancy, the Jewish Museum, the New York Police & Fire Widows' and Children's Benefit Fund, and the Big Apple Circus.

14 John Kluge 82, chairman of Metromedia $30 million Kluge donated to medical causes and gave in excess of $5 million to the National Digital Library (part of the Library of Congress). Over his career he also has given more than $125 million to Columbia University.

15 Thomas Lee 52, president of Thomas H. Lee Co. $30 million Lee's largest gift: $22 million to Harvard. Other funding has gone to Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, Brandeis University, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

16 Ted Turner 58, vice chairman of Time Warner $28 million He and his foundation gave away $28 million. Worldwatch, the Smithsonian, and the Museum of the American Indian were recipients, as were Bat Conservation International, Friends of the Wild Swan, and 200 other environmental causes.

17 Alfred Lerner 63, president of MBNA $27 million There will be a new student center in Lerner's name at Columbia University soon, thanks to his $25 million gift. He has supported Cleveland-area clinics and hospitals. Look for another large medical gift from him around the first of the year.

18 Jon Huntsman 59, president of Huntsman Chemical $25 million Of $100 million he has pledged eventually to the Huntsman Cancer Institute, he paid $10 million. Other gifts went to the Mormon Church, a Salt Lake City homeless shelter, St. Vincent de Paul, and housing projects in Armenia.

19 Phil Knight 58, co-founder and chairman of Nike $25 million Knight gave the University of Oregon $15 million for endowed chairs and $10 million for a new law school, to be named after his father, the late William W. Knight, a lawyer and newspaper publisher.

20 Fred Rose 73, president of Rose Associates $25 million In 1995 New York City's American Museum of Natural History received an anonymous gift of $20 million for the reconstruction of its planetarium. Rose has since confirmed the gift is his. He'll pay most of it this year.

21 James Michener 89, novelist $24 million Recipient of the American Association of Museums Medal for Distinguished Philanthropy in October, Michener has given away 90% of his net worth, including $5 million to the University of Texas art museum in Austin.

22 Peter Nicholas 55, chairman of Boston Scientific $23 million Nicholas's largest gift, $20 million, went to the School of the Environment at Duke University. Another $2.7 million went to the National Council of Churches, where it will help rebuild black churches lost to arson.

23 Ross Perot 66, founder of Perot Systems $23 million Perot's foundation renewed its long-standing commitment to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center with a gift of 23 million, bringing Perot's support of that institution to nearly $39 million.

24 Joseph Jamail 71, owner, Jamail & Kolius $20 million Attorney Joseph Jamail gave exclusively to Texas institutions, including Rice University and the University of Texas ($5 million each), Houston's Museum of Fine Arts ($3 million), and three other Lone Star State medical centers.

25 Betty Brown Casey 68, president of Casey Management $18 million The Washington Opera has just bought the former Woodies department store for its new home, thanks to Casey's $18 million gift. She also gave her Clarke County, Virginia, farm to the Salvation Army for use as a children's camp.