Mark Zuckerberg and wife are most generous U.S. donors

(JTA) — Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook, and his wife, Priscilla Chan, were America’s most generous donors for 2013.

The couple topped the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s list of the 50 U.S. donors who gave the most to charitable causes. They received the most charitable designation with their December donation of 18 million shares of Facebook stock, valued at more than $970 million, to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

The couple, who are both under 30, have donated 36 million Facebook shares to the foundation in the past two years — an estimated value of $1.5 billion, according to the Chronicle. The money will go to education and health programs, they have said.

Joining Zuckerberg as Jewish donors in the top 10 were former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg at No. 4, and Irwin and Joan Jacobs at No. 8.

The Jacobses donated $133 million donation to create the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute at Cornell NYC Tech to promote business ventures between academe and industry.