Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, were the top charitable donors in the United States in 1999, giving $16 billion to their foundation, according to a ranking compiled by a Washington, D.C.-based newspaper covering non-profit organizatio

Ranked second was James Clark, co-founder of Netscape, who made a $150 million gift to Stanford University to build a biomedical engineering center, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reported. The top donations ranking is based on publicly announced gifts to single institutions, the Chronicle said. The list also includes a $128.5 million donation for scholarships at DePauw University by the former chief executive officer of Inland Container, Philip Forbes Holton, and his wife, Ruth Clark. Eli Broad, chairman of Los Angeles-based SunAmerica, a leader in retirement investing, also made the list, donating $100 million for a program to strengthen urban school districts. Other top gifts include a $100 million anonymous donation to renovate Cornell University_s west campus and a $100 million donation from William Hewlett, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, to establish the Flora Family Foundation.