By Maria Di Mento

As the crucial year-end giving season wraps up, charities have little to cheer about from The Chronicle’s tally of giving by the nation’s wealthiest Americans. The 10 single biggest gifts donated by Americans in 2009 totaled just $2.7-billion, compared with $8-billion in 2008 and more than $4-billion in 2007.

In addition, only seven individuals announced gifts of $100-million or more in 2009, a steep drop from 2008 when at least 15 philanthropists announced gifts of that size and almost the entire list was made up of donations that large.

Even in the worst recession in memory, 2009 was not the worst year for giving by the wealthiest Americans. In the 12 years The Chronicle has been compiling this list, four of the years — 1998, 2002, 2003, and 2005 — saw totals of about $2-billion or less.

It’s not just America’s megaphilanthropists who pulled back on their giving. All donors of $1-million or more are retrenching.

The number of gifts of $1-million or more announced in 2009 totaled nearly $3.7-billion from January 1 through December 15, according to data compiled by The Chronicle, down from $12-billion during the same time in 2008. (See all the gifts in The Chronicle’s database of donations of $1-million or more.)

$747-Million

Despite the challenging year, the largest donation of 2009 was substantial: The Haas family, headed by 91-year-old John C. Haas, an heir to the Rohm & Haas Company fortune, gave $747-million to the William Penn Foundation, in Philadelphia, for programs to benefit the Philadelphia region.

Mr. Haas’ parents, Phoebe and Otto Haas, created the foundation in 1945. Including this donation, the foundation’s assets stand at approximately $1.9-billion. It distributed $63-million in grants in 2008.

The second-biggest gift was from the investment managers Stanley and Fiona Druckenmiller who provided $705-million to their Druckenmiller Foundation, in New York. Mr. Druckenmiller founded Duquesne Capital Management, in Pittsburgh, and his wife, Fiona, is a former investment portfolio manager at the Dreyfus Corporation, in New York. The money the couple put into their foundation in 2009 will be used to support medical research, education, and antipoverty programs. In July, their foundation awarded $100-million to New York University Langone Medical Center to establish a neuroscience institute.

Several of the big gifts on the list were designed to meet needs caused by the recession. Last month, Louise Nippert, an owner of the Cincinnati Reds, announced she was providing $85-million to arts groups in Cincinnati that have struggled along with the economy. And in June, J. Ronald Terwilliger, a real-estate developer, announced $100-million gift to Habitat for Humanity, a group that builds houses for the poor.