Click here for the Giving List

A new age of philanthropy is revealed by this year’s Sunday Times Giving List. Our barometer of charitable activity shows that the super-rich are engaged in unprecedented levels of giving.

They are more directly engaged in the distribution of that money than ever before.

Many of the predominantly self-made men and women who top this year’s Giving List are demanding the same level of control over their giving as has served them so well in their wealth-creation activities.

The leading 30 philanthropists among Britain’s richest 1,000 people have pledged or given away almost £2.38 billion in the past year, nearly double last year’s figure of £1.21 billion, and more than five times the amount in 2006. To make the top 30, an individual had to give to charity at least 3% of their residual worth, up from last year’s record figure of 1.36%. Indeed, in our expanded table of the top 50 givers, right, all are donating at levels greater than last year’s top 30.

Their entrepreneurial confidence is fuelling a giving spree of a scale never seen before. “Sea-change is not too strong a word for what we are seeing,” says John Low, chief executive of the Charities Aid Foundation.

“There are two distinct trends: one is a move towards being more open about giving, the other is a move towards planned giving and wanting to take greater ownership of it. This has been going on for a while but it is gaining momentum.”

While some still regard discussion of their philanthropic activities as rather vulgar and rebuff our annual survey, increasing numbers are happy to talk about their charity work. “These people are being influenced by stories in the media about giving and it is encouraging them to stick their heads above the parapet,” Low says.

They are providing a vital lead for others. Sir Tom Hunter, third in the Giving List, having pledged to give away £1 billion in his lifetime through the Hunter Foundation, embraces the role he believes is incumbent on him and those like him. “I’m having the time of my life doing this,” the retail entrepreneur says. “I am evangelical about telling people about it. I still enjoy the wealth-creation side of things; it still stimulates me. But my foundation work stimulates me too, and I can’t think of a better balance.”

Hunter is working in Rwanda and Malawi with Bill Clinton, the former American president, through the Clinton-Hunter Development Initiative. The watchword for his charitable work there is partnership.

He seeks significant, if not matching, funding for most projects from within the two countries — and he demands results, bringing his business acumen to bear. “Handouts breed a dependency culture,” he says. “We try to deal with solutions rather than the fallout from problems and we do what we do for a commercial and social return.”

As Britain’s leading “venture philanthropist”, Hunter adopts a business approach to the funding that will sustain his giving over the coming decades. He keeps the cash earmarked for philanthropy within his core West Coast Capital investment vehicle, allowing it to grow with his own business.

As well as taking on local partners for initiatives, Hunter seeks out world experts in agriculture, healthcare and education to provide the detailed knowledge he freely admits he does not have himself. “We can’t solve every world problem. Our approach is to find the best in the world at dealing with the particular challenge we are facing and to create a framework — and then let them get on with it.”

Results are tangible. Hunter has helped Rwandan coffee growers to create a brand of their own to avoid the limited profit margin going to middlemen. The coffee is to be sold by Sainsbury’s. “It’s been a case of getting the farmers to think as business people,” Hunter says.

His hands-on involvement in charitable spending is characteristic of much of the increased levels of giving seen this year. Several personal charitable foundations have been created in the past 12 months (see list of notable donations), servicing causes close to the hearts of the philanthropic millionaires underwriting them and often administered by relatives — typically wives, sons or daughters — to ensure enduring emotional as well as financial commitment.

A good example is the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), created by London hedge fund manager Christopher Hohn. It is run by his wife, Jamie Cooper-Hohn, who has substantial experience in the charity sector. The foundation is bankrolled by a specific hedge fund, the Children’s Investment Fund, which last year contributed profits of almost £200m to CIFF. The Hohns’ charitable gifts and expenditure are running at more than double their wealth, giving them the highest-ever Giving Index score.

Sir Ian Wood, the second-richest person in Scotland (behind Hunter), acknowledges Hunter’s leading philanthropic role, in particular the “very useful information” he provided before the Wood Family Trust was launched last September. Wood has hired a chief executive with voluntary sector experience but he, his wife Lady Helen and son Garreth will work part-time for the charity, which will spend 75% of its £50m endowment in Africa and the rest in the UK, with a particular focus on developing young people in Scotland.

Completing a triumvirate of Scottish philanthropists, all worthy successors to Andrew Carnegie, perhaps the ultimate philanthropist (Scottish or otherwise), is Margie Moffat, co-founder of the AT Mays travel agency. Her family ranks second on this year’s Giving List, having given away more than its residual worth with the decision to put £50m into their charitable trust for distribution among Scottish causes. “It’s more money than I can spend,” Moffat, 85, said shortly after the endowment was announced. “I can’t even spend the interest. It’s good to make use of it.”

The galvanising effect of high-profile giving on the wider population can be dramatic. Take Terry Pratchett’s £500,000 commitment to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, shortly after he disclosed that he was in the early stages of the condition. Within days, bloggers and fans had launched a Match it for Pratchett website to gather more funding.

A spokesman for the Alzheimer’s Research Trust said that Pratchett’s benefaction had generated an extra £50,000 of directly attributable donations from the public within days, and had also been invaluable in raising the profile of the disease. “Before Terry spoke we were on a par with Amy Winehouse in terms of column inches, and about 50% less than David Beckham. Now we are on a par with Madonna.”

Rebecca Wood, chief executive of the trust, added: “Hearing Terry Pratchett speak out about what is still too often a taboo subject offered comfort to many of the 700,000 people in the UK who live with dementia and moved all who work in dementia research.”

When wealth is combined with celebrity, the giving of time can be an even more potent charitable currency than hard cash. David Beckham’s role as a goodwill ambassador for Unicef, the international children’s charity, gives it a guaranteed profile. The footballer’s visit to Sierra Leone in January made the news worldwide and publicised the charity’s humanitarian work in the war-torn African state.

He and his wife, Victoria, are also generous with their money. His eponymous football academy is reckoned to have given about £2m charitably in benefits in kind and the Full Length and Fabulous Ball, held at their home before the World Cup, raised a similar sum to help disadvantaged children.

Quite how far the spirit of philanthropy has extended in the past year became apparent last month when Simon Cowell, television’s “Mr Nasty”, showed his softer side on American primetime television. During an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show, he wrote a cheque to clear the £80,000 mortgage of a couple whose three-year-old daughter has cancer.

Cowell, the television and music entrepreneur, whose fortune has increased to £112m this year, said after the programme: “I never knew that doing good could feel so good.” He also made a frank admission to Winfrey: “It has taken me 48 years. I credit you with this.”

That feelgood factor, coupled with the entrepreneurial confidence that allows our self-made philanthropists to spend charitably in the belief that the sums can easily be earned again, bodes well for the future of giving among the super-rich.

With many having transferred shares and other assets into foundations and charitable investment vehicles in the past few weeks to beat rule changes on capital-gains tax, the prospects for another bumper year are good.